Barca are struggling to sell out their Champions League opener against Bayern

Barcelona are struggling to sell out their first Champions League game in the post Lionel Messi era despite the fact Covid restrictions have limited the Camp Nou’s permitted capacity.

The club are allowed a crowd of around 40,000 for their game against Bayern Munich on Tuesday but have been surprised by the underwhelming response from their season ticket holding fans.

Only 31,213 requested tickets for the game leaving almost 8,000 tickets unclaimed. And that’s despite their season tickets including entrance to Champions League games.

The club had anticipated receiving more requests than available tickets and were ready to use a lottery system to pick which supporters would be able to see the match.

The tickets are now on general sale with prices ranging from 109 euros to 199 euros.

As well as being Barça’s first game in Europe without Messi the match is also their first meeting with the German champions since they suffered their heaviest defeat in Europe in their history.

Barça were beaten 2-8 by Bayern Munich two years ago and have the chance to take some small revenge this week.

This is not the first time Barcelona have not taken up ticket allocation at home. Covid restrictions were even tighter in the league game against Getafe last month with only 20,000 supporters allowed in the stadium.

But the number of members taking up the option to watch the game was closer to 19,000. The tradition of fans still being away on holiday in the month of August was used to explain away the low demand.

As well as missing Messi Barca’s forward line in that game in 2019 also included Luis Suarez and Antoine Griezmann who both now play for Atletico Madrid.