Jürgen Klopp: Liverpool manager withdraws Europa League final invite to ticketless fans

Klopp initially suggested that as many as 100,000 Liverpool fans should travel to Basel for the final

Klopp has admitted that he made a mistake by inviting fans en masse (Getty)

Jürgen Klopp has told Liverpool fans not to travel to Basel for the Europa League final if they do not have tickets, despite inviting them to do so last week.

The Merseyside club’s manager admitted that he had made a mistake by telling supporters to travel en masse and urged those who are unable to attend the game at St. Jakob-Park to stay at home.

“Last time I spoke about Basel, I spoke like a supporter,” he said, with a sheepish grin, after Sunday’s 2-0 league win over Watford. “I do it sometimes because first of all I am a supporter, I like this game.

“But I invited all Liverpool fans to Basel and that was not too smart to be honest. Basel is a nice city but it is not ready for us. It was my mistake.

“We have to take back the invitation to Basel. Please only people with tickets go there, everything else will be chaos, we don't want this. We want to concentrate on football.”

"It is really, really, really necessary that you now listen. Most of the time you can ignore what I say but now it is important."

Klopp, who saw his side progress to the final with a 3-0 win over Villarreal last Thursday, initially said that as many as 100,000 Liverpool supporters should travel, regardless of their ticketing situation.

“We will take 50,000, 60,000 - maybe not in the stadium – 100,000,” he said after the semi-final second leg. “It is a nice city.”

Thousands of Liverpool supporters are set to be disappointed, however, after the club was allocated just 10,236 tickets for the clash against reigning Europa League champions Sevilla.

Liverpool may be awarded more tickets if their La Liga opponents do not sell their allocation but, nevertheless, the decision to host the game at 38,512-capacity St. Jakob-Park has been widely criticised.

Only 47 per cent of tickets on sale will go to ‘general supporters’. The remainder will be split between: ‘contractual supporters’ including hospitality and right holders; commercial partners; match day officials, first team players, former players and media.

Uefa, European football’s governing body, has since claimed that capacity is only one consideration when selecting a host stadium.

“Uefa tends to select slightly smaller, top-quality venues for the Uefa Europa League final,” a statement on the governing body’s website reads.

“This means Uefa can give more of its national associations an opportunity to host a club final, and gives fans across Europe the chance to experience a major final in their home nation.”