UEFA, the Europa League final & the responsible option...

Blue in Munich

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Well the ticket allocation for the Europa League final has been announced and it's even worse than the Champions League; 6,000 each for Chelsea & Arsenal. Not surprisingly UEFA, the epitome of a two rule organisation, has defended the decision. This is the statement;

"Based on UEFA's recent experience with UEFA Europa League finals and the UEFA Super Cup in comparable venues the number of finalists' supporters requesting tickets for a UEFA Europa League final can vary greatly from club to club," a UEFA statement read.
"Of course, it is impossible to predict in advance which clubs will reach the final while the venue has to be chosen around two years in advance.

"Taking into consideration the above and most importantly the geographical location and logistical capacity of airports in and around the host city, it was deemed that around 15,000 spectators would be able to travel from abroad, with Baku as the main hub.

"Offering more tickets to fans of the participating teams, without any guarantee that they would be able to arrange suitable travel to reach Baku, was therefore not a responsible option.
"Based on these circumstances, for this year's UEFA Europa League final in Baku, 6,000 tickets have been made available to each of the finalists."

Surely the responsible option would be to choose a venue more accessible to the majority of clubs, with better transport hubs, or to have some mitigation in place for these circumstances? Sending two clubs who are about 8 miles apart, and about 10 miles at worst from Wembley, nearly 2,700 miles for the second tier trophy is utterly ridiculous and totally indefensible.

Not that it will actually matter to me; at £121 for the ticket & £979 for the flight for each of us, Mrs BiM & I will pass. But it still bloody irritates.
 

larmen

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Their logic is sound if you ignore them picking a bad venue in the 1st place.

Maybe it should be like the Open rota. Then towns / arenas need to fulfil some criteria to apply to be on it, and then it either rotates or it is a draw for both competitions.

Saying that, apparently for the CL final in Madrid it isn’t all great either.
 
D

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I'm all for finals being held in different countries but it should be widely accessible from mainland europe.

UEFA are the biggest crooks in sport and money rules for them. It stinks.
 

Blue in Munich

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Their logic is sound if you ignore them picking a bad venue in the 1st place.

Maybe it should be like the Open rota. Then towns / arenas need to fulfil some criteria to apply to be on it, and then it either rotates or it is a draw for both competitions.

Saying that, apparently for the CL final in Madrid it isn’t all great either.

The logic only applies because they made such a dumb choice of venue.
 

Orikoru

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I don't think they can really change the venue since some people would have already bought plane tickets (optimistically) when their team reached the semis or the quarters. It was a stupid venue to choose in the first place though. About as far away as you can possibly get while still technically being in Europe. It's up there with Qatar getting the world cup. Nothing to do with what's the most fitting location, it's who bungs them the most money.
 

Liverbirdie

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The thing is they have a ballot that is always over-subscribed, so why dont they give say 10k on the ballot, 20k per club, and if any dont get sold by the 2 clubs, then they go back to the UEFA ballot. Simples.

Lets face it, if any English or Scottish team get there its a guaranteed sell out, and probably the same for most German, Dutch clubs, as well as quite a few others.

The flights and hotels thing do my head in.

A city should "bid" to hold it, and guarantee that hotels either wont up there prices more than say 100%, or they lay on camping options (tent included) for a fee.

I've been to 5 European cup finals and 2 UEFA/Europa and its always the same rip-offs, touting and lack of tickets for clubs. We get called whinging scousers when we mention it, but a few London clubs get there,and there are questions in the house - weird innit? ;)
 

Pin-seeker

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The thing is they have a ballot that is always over-subscribed, so why dont they give say 10k on the ballot, 20k per club, and if any dont get sold by the 2 clubs, then they go back to the UEFA ballot. Simples.

Lets face it, if any English or Scottish team get there its a guaranteed sell out, and probably the same for most German, Dutch clubs, as well as quite a few others.

The flights and hotels thing do my head in.

A city should "bid" to hold it, and guarantee that hotels either wont up there prices more than say 100%, or they lay on camping options (tent included) for a fee.

I've been to 5 European cup finals and 2 UEFA/Europa and its always the same rip-offs, touting and lack of tickets for clubs. We get called whinging scousers when we mention it, but a few London clubs get there,and there are questions in the house - weird innit? ;)
Tbf tho you lot do take whinging to the next level 😉
Poor us 😆
 
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