AfD leader criticizes ticket cancellation for Bundesliga top match

RB Leipzig has canceled VIP tickets booked through a third party for him and several Saxon entrepreneurs for the Bundesliga top match against FC Bayern on Saturday, according to AfD leader Tino Chrupalla. In response to inquiries, the club stated: "We ask for your understanding that we cannot provide any information on individual ticket bookings for data protection reasons." The statement went on to say that Chrupalla had never ordered a single ticket from RB, neither now nor in previous years.

Chrupalla: VIP tickets as a birthday present

The AfD leader said that he had not ordered the tickets himself. A player consultant known to him had organized twelve tickets and a VIP room in the opposite stand at the Leipzig stadium in December as a birthday present for a businessman friend of Chrupalla. The tickets were finally sent to him by the acquaintance on January 10, and he downloaded them to his cell phone using the RB app. An invoice for the tickets and cell phone screenshots could be viewed by dpa.

The Federal Criminal Police Office, whose bodyguards accompany the AfD leader in public, had, as usual, inquired with the club about the local circumstances. The association did not confirm this when asked and referred any questions about the Federal Criminal Police Office to the authorities.

"Then we immediately received the cancellation," said Chrupalla. The tickets had also disappeared from the mobile app. He spoke of a scandal.

Error due to overbooking?

According to the AfD leader, the organizer of the tickets received a message from the club stating that there had been an "annoying double booking". The twelve VIP tickets purchased would have to be reversed.

In addition to stating that they do not comment on individual bookings for data protection reasons, RB only said in general terms: "In principle, overbookings and thus cancellations can occur in our VIP areas during particularly popular home games - such as the one against FC Bayern next weekend." With more than one million visitors per season, errors in the ticketing system, which would be corrected immediately in accordance with the general terms and conditions, could not be completely avoided.