Inter director Beppe Marotta blames Porto and says the Nerazzurri have asked UEFA to open an investigation after hundreds of Nerazzurri fans were kept out of the Estadio do Dragao on Tuesday.
More than 100 Inter fans with home section tickets remained outside Porto’s stadium for the second leg of the Champions League Round of 16 on Tuesday. Porto had warned that only Portuguese fans would have been allowed in home sections, but according to Marotta, Inter’s opponents didn’t follow the plan.
“It was a regrettable and deplorable incident and today we’ve asked UEFA to open an investigation,” the Nerazzurri director told Telelombardia.
“We had reached an agreement with Porto in the morning. Those fans should have been let in slowly, but the agreement was not respected.
“We were granted 5% of seats for away fans, as provided by rules. Porto said on their website that Italian fans should not have bought tickets for home sections, but Inter fans who are all over Europe did it. Once tickets are purchased, the hosting club is in charge.
“There were many families and there wasn’t a security issue like in Naples. Sport must unite people and Porto went against what had been decided in a meeting involving public officers.
“As a club, we will do everything to protect our fans. We are also trying to figure out how to remedy what happened with the fans involved.”
A similar incident involved Juventus before the first leg of the Europa League Round of 16 against Freiburg last week. Several German fans had bought tickets for the home sectors at the Allianz Stadium in Turin, but the club quickly cancelled the purchases and refunded fans.
Circa 2,000 Freiburg fans arrived in the Capital of Pidemont for the match against Juventus last week, but all watched the match from the away end.