Jurgen Klopp has given his thoughts on the fury of the Liverpool fans at the club’s proposed ticket-price increase.
Swathes of Reds supporters left Anfield during the club’s 2-2 draw with Sunderland on Saturday, leaving the stadium in the 77th minute, with £77 being the proposed maximum price for a number of tickets.
The fans’ decision to leave may well have destabilised the Reds, as Liverpool—who were leading 2-0 when the supporters began to leave—ultimately fell to a 2-2 draw as Sunderland pulled back into the match.
Speaking to the Liverpool Echo—as reported by Liverpool fan blog Empire of the Kop—Klopp has weighed in on the ongoing controversy, and urged the club to find a solution.
http://www.empireofthekop.com/2016/02/09/klopp-says-owners-got-the-message-after-sunderland-walkout/
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Our boss Jurgen Klopp has said the club’s owners will have “understood the sign” after thousands of fans left the Sunderland game in the 77th minute at the weekend.
“I know Ian Ayre has already had some talks but we are in contact and that is very important. We are really interested in finding a solution and that is how it should be,” said the German.
“We should talk about this, with as many people as possible, and hopefully in the end find a solution that everyone can be satisfied with. It is really rare that you find a solution where everybody says ‘yes!’. You have to make compromises. That’s how it is.”
He added that he wasn’t worried about the psychological effect on his team.
“I’m not worried. There is always a reason for a situation like there was on Saturday,” he said. “It was not a situation where one game you have 40,000, the next 39,000, the next 38,000, 37, 36 and so on. But it was a sign on Saturday and I think it was easy to understand. That is the good thing with signs. Now we have to talk about it. That’s all.”
“This club is a really big club that has faced a few difficult situations in the history of Liverpool FC. These other problems were bigger than the problem we have in this moment but supporters never, ever lost their love of the club and that will not happen now.”
Fans have warned of more protests in upcoming home games against Man City and Chelsea if issue is not resolved soon.
Given the global audience of those two games will be in the hundreds of millions, Klopp is presumably as keen as anyone to see the solution come to the fore.