According to Sky Sports, Arsenal and Chelsea will return as many as 6,000 of the 12,000 tickets allocated for the Europa League final after supporters from both clubs opted against making the difficult and expensive trip to Baku.
It’s reported that the Gunners will be represented by 4,000 fans who’ve bought tickets via the club with Chelsea taking half that number.
Just to reiterate, Baku’s Olympic Stadium, which is hosting the showpiece fixture on 29 May, has a capacity close to 68,000.
Given we have 45,000 season ticket holders, Arsenal rightly complained about the size of the initial ticket allocation. It’s since become very apparent that even if we’d been given more tickets, the logistics involved in getting to a country on the outer reaches of UEFA’s jurisdiction were going to be far more prohibitive for the average punter.
In justifying their initial allocation by pointing out exactly that, UEFA pretty much stuck two fingers up at us.
What is likely to prove more embarrassing for UEFA is the fact that a number of their sponsors, each with big allocations, are also reportedly sending tickets back as well. The Times (£) claims that the same travel problems facing supporters are hindering those with the option of freebie entry.
Apparently, all returned tickets will be put on sale to locals. We’ll be curious to see if the stadium is full for Europe’s second biggest football final. It’ll be a crying shame if Unai Emery’s and Maurizio Sarri’s men have to go head-to-head in front of swathes of empty seats but maybe that’s what it’ll take for UEFA to reassess the way they hand out these games.
Crazy. Why didn’t anyone think this through in advance. Its not hard to predict the problems.
Fairly $ure U€FA thought it through.
In other words, for the same reason(s) Qatar has the 2020 WC.
Apparently Ivan Gazidis was part of the original UEFA panel that selected Baku..
Absolute clown.
How did that guy stay as our CEO for like 10 years.
Shh! We love Ivan Gazidis, and think he is an astute businessman, with a real nose for talent, evidenced by him trying to steal our fine centerback, Shkodran Mustafi, from us.
You forgot to mention that he is loyal and a man of honour.
Right fucker. Dodgy, greasy asshole.
$101 million reasons I think
£O£
I have to admit I didn’t think through in advance – purchased the ticket and then basically threw the towel in today after being quite £2950 by Thomas Cook for the return flight and seeing no viable alternative. I will frame the ticket and hang it under the stairs. Older, poorer and probably none the wiser.
It’s that bad? I can literally fly return from my adopted country;the USA to my home country India twice in that price! That’s straight robbery man. Really sympathize with you and all the gooners affected by this
I can do Manila to Dublin and back 4 times at that price! Total gouging bastards. Remember not to use Thomas Cook again. Or easyJet who are fleecing fans going to Madrid
Why didn’t the two clubs organize their respective charter flights ?
The airport can only handle 6000 people a day
Try to sell it online at half price? Reverse scalping?
Maybe that’s what we should all do, buy all the tickets and deliberately not turn up to leave the place empty, maybe they’ll be embarrassed by all the empty seats? But probably not thinking about it.
James, take a look at this;
https://www.football365.com/news/the-greater-achievement-arsenals-invincible-season-or-citys-treble
Read the submission from sadharth about using foreign websites. Might help. I did it a few years back and saved about 50% in prices quoted on Uk websites
Siddharth not sadharth, apologies
Really! I paid 979 for mine via Thomas Cook. Please try them again as the flights are not oversubscribed
Let’s hope the good Azerbaijani come out in droves to support the Arse for a win. I am done whining about the location of the finals.. It’s not going to change this year anyway.
I really hope it is an empty satdium. Totally deserved
Like UEFA cares. Im sure they already got their payday from Azerbaijan.
Local authorities (sic) will rather buy all places and give them to locals than display an empty stadium. They cannot loose face… Good news is that whatever will happen, this silly mascarade will be over in less than a week. COYG!!
Problem is they will just give away the seats to make it look successful the whole thing has been a clusterfuck since it started
Assuming locals are prepared to go to an 11pm kick off with the possibility of extra time and penalties before they get home in time to go to work again!
Aaaarrggghhhhhh!!!!!!!
That is the nearest I have for words
Lovely
I assume the decision makers were bunged handsomely so little will change.
I suspect we could drum up more supporters to watch Mkhitaryan play keepie uppie in the Emirates instead.
Haha brilliant. Would watch
Why isn’t the Emirates broadcasting the game live in the stadium? Happens all the time in North American sports.
They’re increasing the seating capacity.
Oh the irony…
Building works at club level mean the bars etc aren’t open. Also they probably wouldn’t get permission to have big screens on the pitch etc on a Wednesday evening.
Wembley? Open it to both sets of fans and get the ol’ projectors out… so long as the decontamination process has been completed.
that’s such a great idea. Seems like a missed opportunity if it doesn’t happen. Charge fans 10 pounds each and donate the money to human rights charity it Azerbajan
Broadcasting rights my fren
When does corruption have any positive effects for us?
Got us loads of foreign treasures in our museums and we’ve done alright out of stripping former British Empire countries of their natural resources. Swings and roundabouts…
It prevented us from ever being relegated, actually. Look it up
Serves them right, the twats.
Credit to the dedicated supporters of both clubs that they even have 6,000 fans attending. You had to figure many sponsor tickets would be returned as well. They are not supporters of either club in most cases and would attend if it was convienient. This is the complete opposite of convienient. Add in the political stuff and it’s pretty much a hard no. Shambolic.
My bro-in-Law works with Kia one of the major sponsors. On reaching the final he applied for tickets and said he’d take me, a fan for nearly 50 years. When we realised costs for flight we said thanks but no thanks (13 May). Kia replies that these were VIP tickets including accommodation AND travel. So, OK we we’re in for that. On 21 May tickets were sent out; accommodation was included but no travel. With prices around £1,000 plus 3-4 days expenses we rather reluctantly returned the tickets!
Kind of crappy that they told you it would include everything, then it didn’t. Hopefully this is a sign that even the sponsors are getting fed up, which would really give UEFA a kick in the arse. Seems like that’s the only way they’ll listen.
perhaps the travel bit was from the hotel to stadium?
Could the club not put the game on a screen live at the Emirates as supporters find it so hard to get there? Or is there some UEFA rule preventing that?
Building works are taking place to increase stadium capacity
Day by day the situation becomes more and more pathetic.
Not to mention the (lack of) ethics and morality of the governing bodies to let the use of those venues/events to whitewash dictatorial regimes, human rights abuses etc.
There is a whole World Cup of this crap coming in 2022
Your statement could not be more true, more clear, and more to the point – my thoughts exactly.
A bit easier to get to Qatar though….
Before that there’s the Euro 2020 with everyone having to fly constantly around Europe/Asia, including Baku again.
UEFA = United Encroachers of Football Asociations?
Un-Ethical Fucking Arsecunts
Wouldn’t it be nice, if the few of us that are ‘lucky’ enough to be going had our seats upgraded to fancy corporate seats !
It would make up for the 14 hours on a plane a little
Coming home with the trophy wouldn’t hurt either!
Imagine if they’d moved this to Wembley what a jubilant affair it would have been.
The clubs should return them all and host the ticket holders for a VIP viewing event.
Fuck UEFA. Fuck corrupt regimes sportwashing their human rights misdeeds.
I genuinely hope the stadium is half empty. The players are professional and will still give 100% on the pitch, full stadium or not.
A half empty stadium will greatly embarrass uefa and hopefully it will teach them a lesson!!! The cunts!!!
If only it would achieve that – I rather fancy they won’t give a toss. They’ll use the returned tickets as a sign they were right. Even if it loses money overall, it’s not their money is it?
What is the way they hand out these games? I mean do they just take cash in a big bag, or has it gotten a bit more refined than that these days?
Good. I wish people would stop paying for scams. It just allows UEFA to carry on the farce.
And the saga continues…
I’m very surprised no travel agency or even the team chartered some planes for the fans and offered seats for a few hundred £. Maybe these huge prices ARE the charter prices as those involved tried to price gouge the entire affair. What a shame..
I would like to know the flights from other leading countries, was this going to be the same for Spanish, German, Dutch and French clubs.
Absolute fucking scandal. I hope the stadium is half-empty for the final, but my guess is that they’ll give tickets away to locals in order to hide their embarrassment.
As many others have pointed out already on this page, this is a foretaste of what is going to happen in Qatar. A month of matches in half-empty stadiums.
UEFAs take away from this will be that they simply allocated too many tickets to each clubs fans I’m sure.
Really hope the stadium isn’t half empty, because I’m going 🙁 it’s pretty depressing how shit this whole affair has been because I feel privileged and excited to see my boyhood club in a European final but this clusterfuck is making things more sour by the day. Shouldn’t be like this
Where are people watching it? I’m thinking of heading to North London to watch it in a pub. I know some are already sold out, not sure which is best to watch it in
If its opened to the locals, it’ll be full no doubt. Arsenal vs Chelsea, 2 big names playing a final for the first(and last) time there.
So i hope there are a lot of local Arsenal fans willing to cheer the team on to success. Either way we need to win this. At all odds.
If tickets are released, I’m sure thousands of Armenians will make the short trip across the border to watch their hero play. Oh, hang on…
Not a problem for the UEFA officials that have pocketed their bribe money already…
They won’t care, they got what they wanted out of it
UEFA are a bunch of spunktrumpets and wankpuffins.
Why is Baku even in Europe?
I wonder if we would of given a rats bunghole if Arsenal were eliminated and didnt make the final? I suspect not.
Reality is money rules football, and there is SFA us average joes can do about it.
Where there is privelage, there is €orruption.
It’s called bribery, plain and simple. The Government of Azerbaijan passes enough money into the hands of an influential middle man who knows a person on the EUFA location selection committee. The money is divided up between the committee members and all vote for a country/city that wants international exposure and promotion. It’s probably cheaper than an ad campaign.
Remember when it came to Dublin they couldn’t give them away either that was more down to the teams playing than anything else though.
Farce. Fuck off UEFA.
UEFA have made it into a joke. Both teams should agree to make the game into a knock around, fancy dress, charity type of thing
If it wasn’t Chelsea and arsenal “big clubs” in this final, no one would be complaining. Let’s not descriminate in football…that side of Europe needs more events like this..let them enjoy hosting the final and when our time is right , like it has always been, we will enjoy aswell..,.let them be and stop whining