According to the Evening Standard, our Europa League showdown with Vitoria in November could be returned to a Thursday evening kick-off after an appeal to local authorities by the Portuguese side.
Europa League matches traditionally take place on Thursday but with local sides Braga and Porto both in the competition, UEFA at the request of the Portuguese police determined that the lower-ranked Vitoria should bring all their home games forward a day so not to put undue pressure on local infrastructure.
Their home game with the Gunners was subsequently pencilled in for Wednesday afternoon at 4.50pm (local time) so that it didn’t clash with the early kick-offs in the Champions League.
Given an afternoon kick-off is a pain in the hole for their supporters (let alone three), Vitoria have argued that two sides from within 50km of each other playing at the same time on a Thursday is not likely to cause much stress. It’s a fair point.
Of course, for any eager Gooners who’ve already planned and booked their trip to Portugal a switch at this point could prove problematic and costly.
It’s worth pointing out that the UEFA website says the game is taking place on 6th November, while the Arsenal website still indicates the match could be played on either the 6th or 7th of November.
If we hear anything more, we’ll let you know.
Update – Arsenal have released a statement confirming that a date for the fixture has yet to be set.
Really, why do they even bother to announce dates when these things are not settled? They should make every effort to get it correct before announcing, and until then just say that the match will be played as part of Matchday XX in the competition which most likely occurs the week of November 4th or whatever it may be.
I’m sure there may be other reasons they don’t do this, but I can’t think of any off the top of my head.
I think a lot of it is to do with tv rights and scheduling.
That’s true, but why not release the fixture list to TV companies before they are released to the public and give them a deadline of a certain amount of time before the actual fixture to choose their time slots?
She was always my favourite Spice Girl.
That’s Scary.
C’mon, be Sporty.
Baby, please!
Strange that their third strip is purple with ginger sleeves!
According to a well known football chant her husband used to bring her along to see us at Highbury.
Becks takes her to see his childhood favourite team I have heard? 🙂
Clearly late with that one sorry…:-(
I’m trying to recall (since we’ve been out for 3 years), but did all this scheduling and location nonsense happen when we were in the CL? Is it just a product of Europa being treated as the unwanted stepchild or did we have these issues when we were in CL? Seems like their endless…
*they’re
3.50pm kick off – too late to watch on my lunch break, too early to dash from the office early. Maybe too much to pull a sicky for a Europa League group stage game…
Yes! Finally will get to watch a European game at a normal time. (Typing from +530 GMT)
Who can remember the last match we played in the champions league without browsing on it?
Seems a safe bet that we were eliminated by either Bayern or Barca…wasn’t that the case for like 5 years in a row?
That 1-5 at home was only 2 years ago, yet look how different we looked compared to today; Ospina, Bellerin, Koscielny, Mustafi, Monreal; Xhaka, Oxlade, Ramsey; Walcott, Giroud, Sanchez. Subs; Cech, Gabriel, Gibbs, Perez, Coquelin, Ozil.
Oh do fuck off mate!
Oh so this isn’t about Queen Victoria?
Did Prince Albert take her to football at our place?
Isn’t it a 3.50pm kickoff time? I thought Portugal was on the same time as the UK?
I like the look of their ground. It looks like an atmosphere waiting to happen.
YAWN.
Taking nothing for granted, we should be breezing through this group stage.
Hope we are back in contention for the 4th place cup so many use to deride Wenger for. Be careful for what you wish for.
Easy viktoria for the gunners either way.
A little known spud has also gone on loan there, maybe we should organise the games for when he’s injured? Seems practical.
Sorry not on loan, the once dubbed “Tottenhams Messi” has signed on a permanent deal. Beware Marcus Edwards.