Atlético de Madrid has ruled that all tickets for the league clash with Barcelona on Sunday 8 November must be collected in person, on foot, from the club's box office at the Riyadh Air Metropolitano, and that supporters must walk there from their own homes. The club's operations department confirmed that the queue begins at the stadium and runs 8 kilometres along the Paseo de la Castellana, turning back on itself twice before reaching the turnstiles.
The policy was introduced after the club's commercial director, Ramón Ledesma, said the online sale had made the purchase of seats «too easy for a match of this weight». Stewards have been issued folding chairs and ticket-collection logbooks, and the club has hired 60 additional marshals to keep the line in order. Supporters in the middle of the queue are expected to reach the window in roughly six hours, depending on the weather.
Club officials said the seats in the south stand, priced at 90 to 150 euros, will be allocated strictly by the order in which fans arrive at the head of the queue. Those at the back will be seated in the upper tier of the north stand, which the club has renamed the Waiting Terrace. The club has also announced that next season's Madrid derby will be sold by the same method, and that the Barcelona fixture will be replayed at the same stadium to test the system for a second time.