Following the announcement of ticket sales for the Champions League quarter-final first leg away to Benfica, to be played on Tuesday 5 April, Spirit of Shankly have been contacted by members and other supporters raising concerns over the planned ticket collection in Lisbon.

Many referenced their experiences surrounding the ticket collection in Milan, when LFC played Internazionale in February..

SOS  are all too aware that the ticket collection in Milan was a totally negative experience for supporters. Most had to queue for hours, losing a huge swathe of their day on what is meant to be a day off, a well-earned break.

We have fed back these negative reports to LFC and asked that where collections are unavoidable, lessons have been learned and changes made. We’ve asked that they ensure every measure is taken to make the ticket collection as hassle-free as possible. Supporters should spend no more than 20 minutes of their time going through the process.

We all favour having our tickets in hand before a trip, but as this is not feasible thanks to local authorities’ demands we’ve requested that:

• A robust system is in place to ensure a seamless process, one where fans are not expected to wait longer than necessary while tickets are distributed
• Collection points are in a central location with bars, cafes and restaurants able to accommodate large numbers of supporters in the vicinity.
• There is an opportunity to pick up tickets the day before the game and extended hours to collect on match day.

Ticket collections put a significant dampener on away trips when fans are often in the host city for just a few hours. It is unreasonable to expect travelling supporters to waste time and every measure should be taken to avoid this.