Barcelona will limit ticket sales for next week's Champions League game against Eintracht Frankfurt to members only to avoid a repeat of when the German club's supporters flooded Spotify Camp Nou in 2022.
Over 30,000 Frankfurt fans managed to get into Barça's stadium for the Europa League tie, creating a sea of white shirts as the Bundesliga side secured a famous victory on their way to winning the trophy.
The two teams meet for the first time since then next Tuesday, with Barça taking the decision to restrict ticket sales leading up to the game.
"This decision has been taken to safeguard the safety of Barça supporters and to prevent a repeat of the situation experienced in April 2022, when the majority of spectators in the stadium were not supporters of the home team," the Catalan club said in a statement.
"With this measure, the club grants absolute priority to its members, who are the backbone of the institution, and ensures that the stadium will be a space of celebration and exclusive support for Barça fans."
Tens of thousands of Frankfurt fans filled the Camp Nou in 2022. Getty
Barça president Joan Laporta also underscored the club's desire to avoid a repeat of what happened last time.
"I don't want to have the feeling we had during that game in 2022," he said at an event on Thursday. "It's a horrific memory, the stadium full of opposition shirts."
The match will be Barça's first in the Champions League back at Camp Nou since they returned to the stadium in November.
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Barça have spent the last two years playing at the Olympic Stadium while the arena is redeveloped, but have played their last three LaLiga games back home with a capped capacity of 45,000 as work continues on the rebuild.
After losing to Chelsea last week, Frankfurt's visit is also important for Barça's Champions League hopes.
Hansi Flick's side currently have seven points from five games, leaving them 18th in the standings, three points off the top eight and an automatic spot in the round of 16.
Frankfurt, meanwhile, are also in desperate need of a win. They sit 28th with four points from their five games, two points short of the top 24 and a place in the knockout round in the New Year.
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Sadio Mane had 'no respect' from Senegal fans, despite Liverpool success, until he won AFCON
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Dec 4, 2025, 01:44 AM ET
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Senegal striker Sadio Mané says despite his successes with Liverpool, winning the English Premier League title and UEFA Champions League, he had no respect from his countrymen until he won the Africa Cup of Nations.
Mane scored the decisive penalty that helped Senegal defeat Egypt and claim their first ever African title in 2022, and he told Rio Ferdinand in an interview that it was a huge weight off his shoulders.
"When I was young, Senegal never won the African Cup," Mane said in an interview with the former Manchester United and England defender.
"That was the mentality of everybody in Senegal: 'Senegal will never win anything because they go close, they don't win.'"
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Before their eventual triumph, Senegal had chased the continent's top football crown for 60 years without success. The closest they came was in 2019 and 2002 when they were losing finalists to Algeria and Cameroon respectively.
Even when they hosted the tournament in 1992, they failed to get past the quarterfinals. Despite a gradual rise following their World Cup qualification in 2002, Mane added that those failures, especially the near misses in the two Finals, had left the country scarred.
Mane said he refused to accept such a defeatist attitude, even before he became a professional football player, and was inspired instead, to be an African champion.
Speaking of his younger self, Mane added: "The time I say, when I become a football player, I will win the African Cup.
"That was something on me, but I don't know how. And I said, I'm not even a football player, but I think like this, that I will win something."
Sadio Mane led Senegal to the AFCON title in 2022, and their stability makes them one of the favourites again. Joao Rico/DeFodi Images via Getty Images
That determination put pressure on him, especially from fans expectations to deliver, pressure which sometimes affected his game: "Before I won the African Cup, sometimes I play bad because of this.
"Because of pressure. Especially of myself. I remember when we went to 2021 African Cup [played in Jan/Feb 2022], I never slept in the night more than five hours.
"And then, that time, I had the biggest problem because I was at Liverpool. And the people in Senegal were expecting, they were talking too much about, 'You only playing good in Liverpool, you play bad in Senegal.'
"I didn't have no respect, I can say. I won Premier League, I won Champions League, but nothing in Senegal. So all this on your shoulder, it's not easy."
Mane, who now plays for Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia, added that the pressure of playing in Africa was heightened by real world consequences of failure, where fans could express their unhappiness in less than ideal ways.
He said: " In national teams in Europe, it's OK. But Africa is different. They can burn your house for nothing. Because for them, they don't have big clubs like Manchester United, Liverpool, they don't have this. They only have their national team.
"I think people in Europe love the national team, but they love clubs more. But Senegal is the opposite. That's why it's big pressure. So for me, I just had to win that."
Sadio Mane was beloved by Liverpool fans, winning the Premier League, FA Cup, UEFA Champions League, and Club World Cup. He departed for Bayern Munich in 2022, and then to Al Nassr in 2023. Jan Kruger/Getty Images
All of that pressure was released with victory in 2021/2. President Macky Sall declared the Monday after the final a public holiday, cancelling the last leg of a diplomatic trip in order to greet the team at the presidential palace in Dakar after they returned from Cameroon.
Sall was just as excited as the regular Teranga Lions fan, congratulated the team in a tweet, that read: "What a game! What a team! You did it. Beautiful moment of football, beautiful moment of communion and national pride. Congratulations to our heroes!"
Scoring the decisive penalty elevated Mane to even more legendary status than he already enjoyed among his compatriots, especially after he had missed one early in the game during regulation time.
He added: "To win the African Cup, the pressure for me is over. It's a privilege to be recognised and also be a role model for kids, especially in your country.
"It's just amazing when you're passing on the street, you are in the car or you are somewhere, you see your name on the back -- Mané, Mané, Mané -- everywhere you go.
"I think this is something which just gives you extra motivation to be the role model. That's why I'm always trying to be this kind of person for those kids."
While Senegal gear up to add a second crown when they travel to Morocco later this month, Mane will once again be at the forefront of that chase. But there is a different sort of contribution he has been making in his home town of Bambali.
The forward is renowned for his charity work, helping to fund the construction of a hospital, school, stadium, petrol station and post office over the years, as well as financing the provision of internet services, donating money to the government for COVID relief, providing scholarships and stipends to families.
The striker said it is borne from his own personal experience: "Being just a football player, for me, it's just not enough. I want to be a very, very big impact in my society. In the pitch and out of the pitch.
"Maybe if you came from this, you will do the same because you will know these people condition, how they live, the struggle. That was my case, to give back to those people."
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