Arsenal manager Unai Emery is preparing his team to face Chelsea in the Europa League final later in May, with the match scheduled to take place in the Baku Olympic Stadium in Azerbaijan, which is some 4,000km away from London where both finalists are based.
Such is the distance between London and Baku, that the quickest one-stop flight takes about five hours and 45 minutes to complete. However, some airlines could take as long as 27 hours based on the stopover destination and waiting duration.
And following confirmation that each team would be allocated only 6,000 tickets for the 69,000-capacity stadium, there has been widespread outrage over the number of tickets UEFA has decided to make available to both Premier League teams.
According to UEFA, Arsenal and Chelsea were allocated 6,000 tickets each due to what it claimed was the country’s infrastructure being unable to cope with an influx of football fans from abroad. This issue was posed to the Arsenal boss following the match at Burnley on Sunday.
“I don’t know exactly [the reasons behind] the decision to play in one place or another place,” Emery said.
Emery also said: “I played one Super Cup [against] Barcelona in Georgia once, in Tbilisi three years ago. It was the same then – two teams from Spain travelling to Georgia to play in the Super Cup. The problem is for the supporters.”
The Arsenal boss added: “I prefer to play closer to England, because we are two English teams and can move a lot of supporters to be with us. Three years ago, with Sevilla, we played against Liverpool [in the Europa League final] in Switzerland.”
Emery then gave his reason for preferring a location for the final closer to England: “The stadium was full of our supporters and Liverpool supporters. It was amazing. I [haven’t really thought] about why they decided to play there.”
He continued: “After, there are going to be 6,000 of our fans and 6,000 Chelsea fans. But the stadium has a capacity of 70,000. I think it’s going to be full, but [maybe not] with our fans and Chelsea’s fans.”
What are your thoughts on Emery’s comments about UEFA’s decision to allocate each side 6,000 tickets for the Europa League final?