FC Barcelona fans must formally transfer tickets to a named individual for today’s Copa del Rey clash with Real Madrid under new rules the club has established for high-profile games.
All season ticket holders not attending the game and who wish to free their seat to a third party not named on the season ticket must do so by filling in an online form with the name and ID of the person who will be using the seat for this particular game. The season ticket holder who has authorised the process maintains the option of cancelling to recover their seat for the game.
To access the stadium and their seat, the person attending the game with a loaned season ticket must have with them the document in digital or paper received by e-mail regarding the process, the season ticket itself and their ID, all of which may be requested at any time.
The ticketing restriction was introduced by the club’s board of directors ahead of this season for high-risk fixtures. The restrictions on transferring tickets was also used during the league clash with Real Madrid last month.
Tonight’s game will be the last El Clasico fixture at Camp Nou before it is closed for more than a year due to Barcelona’s €960m (£850.6m/$1.02bn) redevelopment and expansion project. The revamp of the Camp Nou forms part of Barcelona’s wider Espai Barça project, which also includes the delivery of a new Palau Blaugrana arena and the wide-ranging Campus Barça development. The capacity of the Camp Nou will increase from 98,000 to 105,000 as part of the revamp.
Barcelona will spend the 2023-24 season at the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys while the Camp Nou undergoes renovation.
Barcelona generated a record €8.2m from ticket sales from its LaLiga game against rivals Real Madrid in March. It is believed that the figure is a record for a single match at Spotify Camp Nou, with around €3m contributed from the VIP boxes alone.