Champions League football will be played for the first time at Villa Park tonight, when Aston Villa host Bayern Munich.
It marks Villa’s long-awaited return to European football’s top table and they couldn’t have landed more poignant opposition for their first home game — Bayern were the opponents Villa beat in 1982 to win the European Cup.
However, if you’re heading to Villa Park tonight, you will have paid a fair amount for the privilege, with the cheapest seat for non-season ticket holders costing £85 ($113; €102).
Pricing has been a debating point for many years in the Champions League, but while away fan tickets are now capped at €60, home supporters are still at the whim of their clubs.
So how does Villa’s pricing compare to the rest of Europe? Are they the most expensive? Or do some clubs actually offer tickets for all four home Champions League group stage games which still cost less than the price of one Villa ticket? Spoiler alert — yes, some do.
All of the below are adult ticket prices which we have converted to pound sterling.
Aston Villa were heavily criticised when announcing their prices. Aston Villa Supporters’ Trust (AVST) called the club “out of touch”, with average tickets higher than Villa’s category A prices in the Premier League.
Villa have charged up to £97 for a home Champions League ticket against Bayern Munich tonight, with the cheapest being £85. Season ticket holders get discounted rates ranging from £82 to £70. They are charging the same prices against Bologna later this month.
The most expensive ticket for Liverpool fans at Anfield costs less than Villa’s cheapest Champions League ticket at £61. Liverpool go as cheap as £30 for some adult tickets in the Anfield Road stand, while a small number cost just £9 in the upper tier of the Main Stand. Liverpool’s prices are the same for every group stage home fixture.
Liverpool fans pay relatively cheap prices by English standards (Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
Manchester City charged similar prices to Liverpool for their opening game against Inter Milan, with their most expensive being £62.50 and the cheapest £37.50. Against Sparta Prague later this month tickets are cheaper, from £55 to £25.
Season ticket holders at Arsenal get all four of their Champions League home group stage games included in their season ticket price (although the cheapest adult season ticket at The Emirates is £1,073). Members hoping to get a ticket for last night’s Paris Saint-Germain game in a ballot would have to pay between £74.30 and £106.80, making their highest prices the most expensive in England.
However, Arsenal are offering cheaper tickets for members for their next home game against Shakhtar Donetsk, which they have assigned as a Category B fixture (PSG being Category A). Those tickets cost from £42.60 to £62.60.
Last season’s semi-finalists Bayern Munich offer one of the cheapest tickets in the Champions League, with standing tickets in the lower tier behind one of the goals (and in two other corners) costing £15.80 for all their Champions League fixtures.
Elsewhere in the Allianz Arena, seats cost £49.93 to £99.86 for Category A fixtures (just the PSG game in the group stage) and £41.60 to £83.22 for Category B matches (Dinamo Zagreb, Benfica and Slovan Bratislava).
Borussia Dortmund fans could choose to pay around 23 per cent more for their season ticket to guarantee tickets for their four home Champions League games (for example, a Category 4 seat costs £638 compared to £518 for a normal Bundesliga season ticket). A standing season ticket with the group stage games included costs £248.82.
Matchday tickets for the Champions League range from £62.41 for the most expensive seats, to £15.40 for standing, meaning that, like Bayern, Dortmund offer some of the cheapest tickets in the competition.
Borussia Dortmund’s players salute their fans at Signal Iduna Park (Alex Grimm/Getty Images)
Stuttgart, back in the competition for the first time since 2009-10, offer a Champions League group stage ticket for all four matches costing as little as £63.25 to stand behind the goals (£15.81 per game), with the highest being £416 for prime seats (£104 per game). Individual match prices cost exactly the same as they would for the four-match package, from £15.81 to £104.
RB Leipzig also charge £15.81 behind one of their goals. Most seats cost between £41.61 and £49.93 and the most expensive seat is £99.86.
And continuing the theme of German clubs offering value for money, Bayer Leverkusen sold lower tier standing tickets behind one of the goals for just £13.31 at home to AC Milan last night. Most of their seated tickets cost £36.62, while the most expensive seats in the main stand were £64.08.
Italy
Average prices for the four Italian clubs are more expensive than in Germany and more aligned with English prices.
Juventus‘ most expensive seat for members for their match against Stuttgart later this month costs £71.57, while the cheapest tickets behind both goals are £37.45. For non-members the prices range from £79.06 to £40.78.
AC Milan’s prices vary, offering far cheaper tickets than Juventus but also some seats which are considerably more expensive. The cheapest ticket for members at San Siro is £15.81, while a few grandstand tickets are as high as £140.64. Most of Milan’s tickets range from £28.29 to £82.39.
Milan fans before the game against Liverpool (Marco Luzzani/Getty Images)
The cheapest seats from which to watch Inter Milan versus Red Star Belgrade last night were £24.13, although most, similar to their city rivals, cost between £32.46 and £83.22
Bologna have sold four-match Champions League packages for their first ever top level European campaign. Existing season ticket holders could buy a group stage ticket for £99.86 behind one of the goals to watch them play Shakhtar Donetsk, Monaco, Lille and Borussia Dortmund, which is £24.96 per game. Gold seats in the main stand go as high as £624.14 for the four matches, while most seats cost £266.30, which is £66.57 per match.
For their home game against Arsenal last month, Atalanta charged £28.29 behind the two goals, while VIP grandstand tickets were among the most expensive in the competition at £183.08. Most seats in the main stands ranged from £66.57 to £91.54.
Watching Barcelona at home to Young Boys in the Olympic Stadium last night (Camp Nou is still being redeveloped) would have cost you £61.58 in the cheapest seats at the back of one stand behind the goal. Lower tier tickets behind the goals cost £82.39, while the most expensive grandstand seats were £135.65.
Barcelona’s Olympic Stadium, their temporary home while the Camp Nou is being rebuilt (Josep Lago/AFP via Getty Images)
Neither Girona nor Real Madrid list ticket prices on their website for non-members. For Real’s quarter-final against Manchester City last season the cheapest seat in the top tier was £73.23, while the most expensive grandstand seats were £259.64.
Atletico Madrid offer tickets to members which are 50 per cent cheaper than general admission. Their cheapest Champions League tickets are £24.97.
The cheapest available resale seats at Parc des Princes to watch PSG against PSV later this month are £62.41 on the club’s official website, with prime seats costing as much as £262.14.
Lille offer a four-match group stage ticket for £99.03, which works out at £24.75. Not bad seeing as they play Real Madrid, Juventus, Sturm Graz and Feyenoord.
Monaco include Champions League group stage tickets in their season tickets, which range from £199.72 to a whopping £1,413, although given the locale, presumably there is no shortage of people who can afford them.
And the cheapest tickets at Champions League newbies Brest, who are playing their European games 70 miles away at Guingamp’s Stade du Roudourou as their ground does not meet UEFA standards, are £41.61, with the most expensive being £83.22. Throw in a two-hour train journey and that isn’t the cheapest night out.
Rest of Europe
Celtic offer a four-match group stage ticket for £184, which works out as £46 per match.
Also at the cheaper end of the spectrum are Croatian club Dinamo Zagreb, although, in fairness, their uncovered Maksimir Stadium has been labelled as one of the ugliest in Europe.
Tickets for their game against Monaco tonight are as cheap as £15.81 for members, or 24.13 for non-members, with the most expensive being £49.93 for members and £58.25 for non-members.
Sturm Graz’s cheapest ticket for their match against Club Bruges tonight is £37.45 to stand, with the most expensive seats being £107.35.
Sporting offer some of the best value tickets in the Champions League ranging between £19.14 and £48.27 for members for their match against Manchester City next month.
Across the city, some of the most expensive prices in Europe can be found at Benfica’s Estadio da Luz, where the cheapest ticket in the top tier behind the goals for their match against Feyenoord later this month is £81.14 for members. A mid-range seat on the sides is £124.83 and the prime seats cost as much as £212.21
Those prices are not exactly in keeping with the two club’s traditions as being elite (Sporting) and the club of the people (Benfica).
So, what did we learn?
To answer the original question, yes Villa are among the most expensive clubs to watch in the Champions League this season, along with Benfica, Barcelona and PSG with their cheapest tickets all being north of £60.
Many clubs offer prime seats that are more expensive than anything Villa Park has on sale, but in terms of the lowest prices, Villa and Benfica are the worst offenders.
As is so often the case, if you want ticket prices that aren’t exploitative to loyal supporters, head to Germany.
(Photos: Getty Images/Design: Dan Goldfarb)
