A Seville bar boss has said the city is not prepared for the influx of football fans and fear they don’t have enough televisions in bars in the city to watch the game.
Michael Melia, manager of Irish bar O’Neills, said city authorities had hugely “underestimated the numbers”, saying a lack of places to watch the match in the city centre is going to be a problem.
“If 60,000 go to La Cartuja, where will the other thousands go?,” he asked. “I don’t think there’s enough TVs”.
Michael said he has “fond memories” when Celtic fans came to his bar to watch the 2003 Uefa Cup final.
Despite the Parkhead side losing 3-2 in extra-time to Jose Mourinho’s Porto team, the fans partied like they had won, jumping in fountains.
He said: “They were good losers. It was a great atmosphere. The bar was 10-deep.”
However, this time his bar will be closed on match day for “maintenance”.
There are also fears that trouble may flare as happened in March when pitched bottle-throwing battles between Eintracht Frankfurt ultras and West Ham fans took place on Paseo de Colon, at the corner of O’Neills bar.
Michael said: “It was scary. The police dropped the ball.”
West Ham and Eintracht Frankfurt were in Seville for Europa League ties against Seville FC and Real Betis.
Then the German support was only 3000-strong but included their ultras fans.
It is believed Eintracht Frankfurt will have between 60,000 and 100,000 fans travelling for the final this time.
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