Como president Mirwan Suwarso and a number of the club's directors have decided to hand over their tickets for the club's first-ever Champions League fixture so that longtime elderly fans can be present for the historic occasion.
The Serie A side will welcome RB Leipzig to the Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia on Thursday for a match that marks a milestone in the club's 119-year history. Como secured their spot in Europe's top club competition by finishing fourth in Serie A last season, a remarkable achievement under manager Cesc Fabregas, the former Arsenal, Chelsea and Barcelona midfielder.
Demand for tickets to witness the occasion has vastly outstripped what the stadium can offer. The lakeside venue normally holds around 12,000 spectators, but that figure has been cut by roughly 1,000 seats for Champions League nights due to Uefa's operational and broadcasting requirements, with part of the stadium ruled non-compliant. All available tickets for the Leipzig match have already been snapped up.
Faced with the reality that many loyal supporters would be shut out of the game, Suwarso took to Instagram to announce that he and several fellow executives would step aside from their own seats so older fans could take their place instead.
"With the reduced capacity and the limited number of tickets available, unfortunately we cannot accommodate everyone who would have liked to be there," Suwarso wrote. "However, some club executives and I have decided to give up our seats for this match. We want those seats to be allocated to supporters who have waited the longest - fans born in 1950 or earlier, who have followed Como through every division and every era. We will be honoured to give up our seat for them."
The gesture carries particular weight given the club's turbulent recent past. Como filed for bankruptcy twice within the last twenty years, and the fans now being offered these seats stood by the club through those difficult chapters, following it across Italy's various divisions.
Since then, Como's fortunes have transformed dramatically. The club has climbed through three promotions in six years, a run that returned it to Serie A in 2024 after a 21-year absence from the top flight. Last season's fourth-place finish under Fabregas capped that ascent by delivering qualification for the Champions League for the very first time.
Suwarso, an Indonesian businessman who has served as Como's president since 2019, has overseen much of that revival. His decision to give up a coveted seat for Thursday's game reflects an effort to acknowledge the supporters who never abandoned the club during its lowest points.
Ahead of the historic kickoff, the Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia itself underwent extensive renovation work over the summer to meet Uefa's standards for hosting European fixtures, part of the broader preparations required for Como's leap onto the continental stage.
The visit of RB Leipzig is just the beginning of a daunting league-phase schedule for the newly promoted European debutants, who will also face Feyenoord, Manchester United, Lens, AEK Athens, Real Betis, Paris Saint-Germain and Barcelona as they navigate their first taste of Champions League football.
Based on reporting from Independent Football and BBC Sport Football.