UEFA have apologised to Arsenal for the travel issues that has come about from their decision to host the Europa League final in Baku but insist that it would be "utterly unfair to exclude certain venues just based on their decentralised geographical position".
Arsenal and Chelsea are both through to the Europa League final after semi-finals against Valencia and Eintracht Frankfurt respectively. However, thousands of supporters have opted not to travel to Azerbaijan for the final, with airfare alone costing many supporters in excess of £1,000, meaning that both Arsenal and Chelsea are struggling to sell out allocations of just 6,000 tickets.
UEFA say they could not have predicted that two clubs from London would make the final when they selected the venue two years ago and apologised for the difficulties. However, there’s not a single word in the official response about Armenian midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who is also restricted from entering Azerbaijan because of his nationality.
Read UEFA's response in full below
We acknowledge your letter of 15 May.
I would like to give you a bit of depth with this reply. Knowing your long experience in football and UEFA competitions, I am sure you can fully appreciate that the organisation of a final is a complex and lengthy operation.
UEFA has committed to appoint hosts only via a fair and transparent bidding process, where the candidates have to provide evidence of their ability to stage the event on the basis of a number of criteria that are crucial to its successful delivery.
Mobility and accommodation are obviously key criteria falling under evaluation, with airport capacity being an important element. The specificity of the UEFA Europa League final, when compared to the UEFA Champions League final, is the high volatility in the number of fans following the two finalist teams.
Experience from all previous finals tells us that the numbers may be very inconsistent from team to team and from final to final and that it is therefore not advisable to establish the tickets quota of the two finalist teams as a proportion of capacity rather than on statistically based realistic figures.
It would of course be ideal to postpone the entire ticketing process (including tickets for neutral public) until such moment when teams are known or closely predictable. Of course this is not possible due to the complexity of all ticketing operations and the need to draw up thorough and robust security plans.
It goes without saying that an all-English final played by two London teams was not a very predictable event at the time of the appointment. There is little doubt that this has added significant difficulties to the event logistics. We are really sorry for the problems that your (and Chelsea’s) fans are encountering trying to organise their journey to Baku.
Our experts are keenly working on this matter with a view to help find cheaper solutions for travelling fans. We would welcome a joint effort with your club in this respect.
For UEFA fans are a priority. Football is for fans and all of them around Europe should have the chance to enjoy unique moments of top football such as only UEFA competitions can offer. Those matches are usually reserved to a limited number of countries whose clubs are particularly competitive but, when appropriate infrastructure exists and is built also in this perspective, it is fair and due not only to give also other fans the possibility of a unique live experience, but also to stage events which can greatly boost the promotion of football in an entire region.
That’s why UEFA would consider utterly unfair to exclude certain venues just based on their decentralised geographical position.
I trust your understanding as men of sport and representatives of a club with a long and glorious tradition and solid sporting principles. I confirm our availability to work with you in order to find helpful solutions for your fans.
