Tottenham Hotspur chairman Daniel Levy has never seemed to be the most popular person in this part of north London, and a recent decision has exposed his attempts to remove fans attending European games in the N17 .
Although Spurs missed out on the Champions League largely due to an awful finish to the 2023/24 campaign, they still managed to earn a place in the Europa League.
Qarabag are the Lilywhites’ first opponents in European competition this season, and if Levy had had his way, his supporters would have been paying through the nose for the privilege.
Daniel Levy’s attempts to hook the fans has come back to bite the Tottenham chairman
according to The Telegraph (subscription required), the north Londoners were apparently one of three clubs to oppose the price cap for fans outside of Europe.
This has, of course, meant that Tottenham will lose out on potential revenue, as it is very likely that the club have charged more for tickets than they are allowed to.
Football Insider note that there is an upper price cap of £33.70 for away supporters attending Europa League matches and the host club is therefore prohibited from charging more.
Football finance expert Stefan Borson doesn’t think the cap is that bad either.
“Outside schemes are good schemes” he told Football Insider.
“People are spending a fortune just to get to the place, it works well in the Premier League too, but obviously you lose income with a cap.
“If you go to Spurs and you’re on the outside, you’re going to be 10 seats away from people who are paying maybe three times what you’re paying as an away fan.
“So as an away fan you’re paying £30 or €50 in Europe, but at the end of the day there are people who are paying multiples of those ticket prices and so Spurs say they want to maximize that.
“It seems to me that it makes sense that there are at least some schemes that limit prices.
“Away fans are a perfect group to support because there are generally die-hard fans who go home and away and have extra costs to go to those games.
“If they can be subsidized so that the price goes into the soil, that seems to me to make sense.
“The average away fan spends more than the average home fan in terms of soda and drink and everything else, so I don’t think it’s a disastrous idea.”
Top photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images
