Jordi Cardoner defends club's handling of Seient Lliure system

FC Barcelona first vice-president Jordi Cardoner made a public statement on Monday in the wake of information published earlier on in the day on Catalan channel TV3 regarding what have been claimed are anomalies in the payment of tickets from the Seient Lliure service at ten games in recent seasons.

Said Cardoner “Barça has acted correctly in payment for Seient Lliure, and the sole beneficiary of the system are the club members. The club shall continue to act in the same way on this matter because we understand the system to be the fairest one for our members. All members that felt it opportune have been able to address our OAB (supporter services office) and have been duly heard and informed”.

“We feel very upset and let down by the report on our local television channel. It is a shame that a public channel should report something so biased. We have made many mistakes in the past and we shall continue to make mistakes, but on this issue we are convinced that that is not so – we have done the right thing.”

Seient Lliure (‘Free Seat’) is the system whereby season ticket holders are able to release their seats back to the club on days when they are unable to attend matches at the Camp Nou.

“The payments that members receive from Seient Lliure are tied to ticket prices without any additional service" continued Cardoner. "All members that release their seats, and if they are sold on, receive 50% of the sale price after deducting handling fees and VAT. Members can recover up to 95% of the original cost of the season ticket.”

The director concluded his intervention by stating that “Seient Lliure is a service that all members are free to make use of if they wish, and which is good for ensuring good crowds at matches and enables season tickets holders to recover some of the cost that they have paid.”