Arsenal have confirmed that their UWCL tie against Bayern Munich on 18 December will now take place at Meadow Park. Initially the match was scheduled to be played at Emirates Stadium.
However, the men’s team were drawn at home to Crystal Palace for the same week as well as Spurs men being drawn at home to Manchester United in the League Cup. The situation is further complicated by the fact that UEFA requires the stadium for two days so that Bayern Munich can train and fulfil media duties in the host stadium the day before the game.
Ultimately it meant that the Tuesday and the Thursday became impossible for the men’s league cup fixture. The UWCL game cannot be moved as it is the final group fixture, it has to take place on Wednesday 18 December at 8pm. A double header with the League Cup game is not possible due to ticketing, the fact the UWCL game has to take place at 8pm and the different branding the stadium requires for a UEFA fixture.
Initially Meadow Park was not deemed to meet UEFA requirements but UEFA have apparently granted dispensation for the game to take place there. Supporters will have their tickets for the Emirates match refunded and they will be put back on sale for Meadow Park next Tuesday. The club are also offering a complementary WSL home match at the Emirates to all supporters who are refunded, or else a £20 voucher for the Armoury store.
What a shame, would have been a great European night at the Emirates.
Going to be a different sort of match at Meadow Park, let’s hope our street smarts show through.
Nice to meet you both. Hopefully catch up again ✌🏿
Ah dude was very fun bumping into you! Who knew there were so many knowledge Arsenal Women fans on the 1836 train from Catford to London Bridge? Hope to bump into you soon
Making the best of a bad job. Definitely better than playing at a neutral venue, and it’s guaranteed to be packed out. Maybe the club could offer those who’ve already bought tickets a room/bar at the Emirates to watch the Bayern game on a big screen? Since it will be open anyway. I’d prefer that to a voucher for the Armoury, tbh. Don’t know how practical that is, though. The whole thing is working out very expensive, what all the extra admin, with refunding Emirates tickets, only being able to sell 4000 and at a lower price, at that. I… Read more »
The Arsenal website says full refund and a complimentary ticket to an Emirates WSL match plus 24 hour advance booking for the Munich game at Meadow Park. Or you can have an Armoury voucher if you prefer. I feel the club has done the best it can for the supporters in an embarrassing situation.
Ah right. Missed the first bit. That’s better.
Annoying is a good choice of word – and I feel it’s a huge missed opportunity by the club to have shown their (still true) huge commitment to their women’s team.
Yup. Could have played the men’s game at a neutral stadium. But with the numbers of fans involved, of course the club will want to get the far bigger match day crowd into the Emirates. I don’t blame them, we need the money!
And if the women’s game in question had been the Vålerenga home match, I would have been happy to give up home advantage and play at a neutral London venue like, ooh, Selhurst Park, which would definitely have been available. 😉 But we need everything we can get against Bayern, so MP is the best option.
Neutral stadium for the men would very likely not have been approved by EFL. They can reverse ties (they reversed a tie earlier in the competition because FAC Wimbledon’s ground was flooded) but EFL rules don’t allow neutral stadiums. Spurs did apply for a dispensation a couple of years ago when they were at Wembley and it was double booked but that was granted because they don’t own Wembley.
Who owns Wembley?
The F.A.
So they could have moved the men’s game to Selhurst Park. I’m a realist, I know that was never going to happen so thank goodness for MP – the best option for an alternative venue for the women’s match. But the clash wasn’t, or shouldn’t have been, AWFC’s problem.
yeah my understanding was that Selhurst Park was technically the only viable option, in that we could have volunteered to give up our home advantage. Anything else wasn’t possible/permittable. It’s a shame that most of the press articles seemed to blame Arsenal instead for letting down the women’s side of the club without any explanation of the nuances involved.
2 very good points and l totally agree with you. Why you have 8 ‘red thumbs’ lve no idea??
Yeah my first thought was ‘move the men’s game’. First come first served. Would love to see the men’s team at Meadow Park.
😁
I’m not really bothered about thumbs up or down, it’s all opinions, isn’t it? But I’m glad you took my points.
Tim and Jamie had a really good discussion about this. Jamie was rather irritated suggesting the women were treated as secondary. Tim countered (in good “don’t offend anyone” Stillman fashion, heh) with a lot of facts about all the extenuating circumstances. I agree that the two different dimensions of The Arsenal should be on even ground but in this particular case there was just no way to accommodate both sides and moving the men’s game was a lot more complicated than “just move it”. The solution they’ve come up with at least somewhat preserves both sides’ home advantage… more or… Read more »
Is it known for sure that they wouldn’t have gone beyond issuing 9999 tickets for Champions League group stage games at the emirates ? Because that hasn’t quite been clear. Bayern was more the game that would tested it had it stayed at the emirates. For Juventus they allowed TE which is unusual for a game you had buy for the individual game.
They could have moved the men’s team to Meadow Park. That would have been something.
EFL competition rules would not have allowed for that! The only other option was to reverse the men’s tie.
I understand why they couldn’t move the men’s match. But big miss for the women. They would likely have had at least 40K at the Emirates. Why not try to move to a neutral stadium in London. It still would have been majority Arsenal fans.
This week’s Juventus game will give a reasonable indicator of gate size for the Bayern game but I doubt whether 40k would have been achieved midweek just before Xmas. The switch to Meadow Park will imo bring a benefit in the footballing sense as it will give the team a real home advantage. Bayern will not relish facing AWFC in front of 3,500 of the most passionate and voiciferous Gooners. MP will be rocking and if we need to give Bayern a good old fashioned tonking to finish top of the group (and thus likely to avoid Chelski or MankC… Read more »
Well done UEFA. Making us play in some other London large ground would have deprived us of a home match against Bayern.
I don’t think it was a case of Men over Women in using the Emirates. There were so many other variables like other matches, policing, and the fact that Emirates isn’t our home yet… even if it is heading it that direction, we were promised 10 matches and I expect that to happen.
I’m exclusively arsenal women’s football fan, but I think we have to be reasonable about where womens football is right now, in comparison to mens.
Well said. I barely follow the mens but I’m realistic enough to understand that there are lots of issues at play in juggling both teams at a single stadium. As Tim says, the men’s competition rules didn’t allow play at a neutral venue, which somewhat limits our options! This is an imperfect solution but playing at Meadow Park means Bayern have much more of a streetfight than the plush pitch and arrangements of the Emirates. Bring it on I say! We need every advantage to get one back at them.
I’m in europe from australia this december for the very first time and I organised my days in london around making this match, if I had known earlier then I probably could have organised to be at a match earlier in the month but things are locked in now. I’ll try my best to get a meadowpark ticket but not liking my chances, so I feel a little bit disappointed I guess.
Sorry to hear, hope you manage to get some tickets. The atmosphere at MP is awesome, *whisper it* and I prefer it to Emirates.
Ssssh! So do I!
Going to be interesting to see what happens in future seasons.