Champions League Final: Outrageous ticket prices lock Nairobi Senator out of Wembley showdown

Champions League Final: Outrageous ticket prices lock Nairobi Senator out of Wembley showdown

Joel Omotto 12:00 - 02.06.2024

Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna has revealed how he failed to secure a match ticket to watch the Champions League final at Wembley due to the highly-priced match ticket.

Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna has revealed how he missed a once in a lifetime opportunity to watch the 2024 Champions League final due to the high cost of the match ticket.

Sifuna, who has been in London for the last few days, had expressed a desire to watch the match live at Wembley Stadium as Real Madrid faced Borussia Dortmund, Los Blancos winning 2-0 to lift a record-extending 15th crown, but was surprised by the cost of a match ticket which forced him to watch the match on TV.

“Still in London. The #UCLfinal is happening here. I asked how much a ticket to watch it live at Wembley was nikaambiwa 300k Kenyan,” Sifuna posted on X.

“I said I can’t pay that. Then my friends heard I wanted to go wakauliza niko na ngapi [they asked how much I was willing to pay]. I said 10k. Wamesema niache ufala nione kwa TV kama wao [they said I am not serious, I should watch the game on TV].”

Sifuna was not lucky due to the fact that most tickets sold out weeks before the final with the few remaining ones becoming a hot cake, hence the high coast.

As per AS, both participating teams received an allocation of 25,000 tickets out of an 86,600 capacity for the Champions League final, with 10,000 tickets being made available for fans worldwide. The rest were for hospitality or corporate guests.

UEFA announced ticket prices for the final in April clustered in different categories. Fans First- $76 (Ksh10,099), Category 3 - $204 (Ksh27,109), Category 2 - $548 (Ksh72,823) and Category 1 - $777 (Ksh103,254). With Sifuna’s Ksh10,000, he would have purchased the Fans First ticket but that meant doing it very early.

There was no official ticket resale platform this year, meaning fans who bought the tickets and were unable to go to Wembley must opt to get their money back instead.

Demand was sky-high in the days leading up to Saturday’s final with third-party ticket resale website StubHub listing a few remaining seats close to €3,000 (Ksh432,816) a few days before the game, with the top prices well over €20,000 (Ksh2,885,444).

Madrid survived a first half onslaught from Dortmund to claim the title following late goals from Dani Carvajal and Vinicius Junior.

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