A Liverpool supporter has bought 'the cheapest coach in the UK' so he can drive fellow fans to the Champions League final in Paris.
The Reds take on Real Madrid at the Stade de France on Saturday, aiming to win their seventh European Cup. Liverpool have just under 20,000 tickets for the game but tens of thousands of supporters are expected to travel to France for the final.
As such, demand for transport is high and prices have increased - with some fans being charged hundreds of pounds for flights or ferry tickets. To counter this, Liverpool supporter Simon Wilson has bought his own coach and will drive supporters to Paris.
Wilson is charging fans just £1 to travel to the showpiece event, despite the coach costing him a "small fortune". The YouTuber, who boasts more than 950,000 subscribers on the social media platform, bought a £40 car in 2019 to take his mates to Liverpool's Champions League final against Tottenham in Madrid. The Reds won that game 2-0.
"A couple of years ago I saw fans getting charged extortionate prices," Wilson told the Liverpool ECHO. "People who were massive fans and just wanted to go to the game couldn’t because it was so expensive.
"For this final, I was going to take the Skoda but there’s only a couple of seats in the car. We wanted something a bit bigger so we could help people out... I bought the cheapest coach in the UK that I could find. I was just Googling ‘cheap coaches’ and I came across this one."
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Wilson has wrapped the coach in red stickers, advertising his YouTube channel and celebrating Liverpool's success. "We’ve wrapped the coach and put stickers on it, for perspective, the stickers have cost more than the coach," added the YouTuber.
"The guy we bought it off just seemed to be a very nice, helpful guy, so that sort of gave us a bit of confidence, but we’ll let you know if the coach is any decent if we get there."
Wilson's coach left Anfield on Thursday and will head to Dover to catch the ferry. "For me, it’s just about helping people get there," said Wilson. "The petrol is costing over £1500, I’ve paid for the coach, the drivers are both on a wage, you have the insurance and so on.
"The cost of doing this is a small fortune, but we’re only charging people £1 for a return. This is about making it affordable for people who want to go and have the experience of a lifetime."
Wilson and his passengers will be hoping for a Liverpool victory on Saturday. The Reds are aiming to win their third trophy of the season after lifting the FA Cup and EFL Cup. Real have also won two honours this term - the Spanish Super Cup and La Liga.
Saturday's event will be a repeat of the final in Kyiv four years ago, when Real defeated Liverpool 3-1 to win a record 13th European Cup. It's also a repeat of the final in Paris in 1981, when Liverpool defeated the Spanish opponents 1-0 thanks to Alan Kennedy's winner.
