It wasn’t hard to notice the empty seats at the Camp Nou in Barcelona’s most recent home match in the Copa Del Rey. While manager Gerardo Martino was in an understanding mood of the low attendance, Dani Alves felt a bit less forgiving.
Only 38,505 fans showed up for the Copa Del Rey SEMIFINAL, which isn’t the lowest attendance figure in a home match at the Camp Nou this season: Last month, only 25,551 supporters were present for their Copa del Rey quarterfinal second leg against Levante. However, given the hour (10pm local time), the cold and the fact that it was the fourth home match in 10 days, with the Spanish Cup never being too much on the fan’s mind in Barcelona, it might not be such a huge surprise.
I think that here the people are a bit pessimistic. With the smallest thing here people get much colder. But I think Barcelona is a thing for everyone, not just the players. This club is made up of players and fans — everyone fighting for the same objective, which is to win and enjoy a final. Those who do not show up are not as big ‘cules’ as they say they are.
But it might also have to do with Barcelona losing to Valencia, the club’s president stepping down and the whole ugly mess with Neymar, who is also injured at the moment. When you add everything up, it’s not that difficult to see that for fans who have gotten used to the best of treatments don’t need much of a reason to give themselves a night or two off without anything to really bring them in.
As we mentioned before, Martino felt a little bit more forgiving towards those who didn’t show up.
I can just say that if I had sympathies for Barcelona and was working on Thursday, and the game was on Wednesday night at 10 p.m., then I would not come. This might be the exclusive reason why the fans did not come, the truth is I do not know.