For the first time in the history of the European Cup there will be a London Derby in the final: Chelsea against Arsenal (Wed., 21 o’clock live on DAZN). Seems like a box-office hit. But the final stadium in Baku won’t be full – not even all players can travel. The Road to Baku is a nightmare for many – now also for UEFA.
When Jake’s girlfriend Holly says he and his buddy Kevin are completely stupid, then Holly is just right.
Jake (27) and Kevin (59) started their trip to Baku last Tuesday – to the European League final where their blues will play. Seven days, four flights and a 27-hour train ride later they arrived in Baku. A hell of a trip just for a soccer game. Holly’s right.
But without these completely stupid fans, the final in Baku would be a ghost game – to put it bluntly. The spectator stands would not be empty, only empty of emotions.
“Never before has a game been so hard for me to reach,” Jake told the Daily Mail. He and Kevin were forced to travel to Baku this way. A simple flight would have been too expensive. The official options would have cost around 1000 euros.
Chelsea and Arsenal are each entitled to 6000 tickets for their fans. That is around 17 percent of the total quota. By way of comparison, Liverpool and Tottenham will be able to claim 53 per cent of the Champions League final in Madrid. But this is not possible in Baku. The unspeakable reason: More fans would blow up the capacities of the airport in Baku.
“Arsenal has returned 2300 tickets, Chelsea 4000. Some sponsor tickets have also been returned to UEFA. I totally understand that. As a fan you would love to support your club, such a finale is something very special. But the cost of this trip is out of all proportion,” says Ralph Gunesch in an interview with SOCCERSCORE and Goal.
The Premier League expert will be for DAZN at the Olympic Stadium in Baku on Wednesday. He will not see Henrikh Mkhitaryan there. The former Dortmund player has decided to stay in London – as he did in October, when the Gunners played against Qarabag in Baku in the group phase.
His rejection is a precaution. Mkhitaryan’s homeland Armenia and Azerbaijan are enemies. The borders of neighbouring states have been closed for years, a 100-year conflict over the intermediate region of Nagorno-Karabakh in the Caucasus being the cause. The Azerbaijani government assured Arsenal and Mkhitaryan of safe entry. But for the arsenal star, the risk is too high.
“This is a no-go. Even if it had been ‘just’ a physiotherapist, I would find that just as bad. Only now the media attention of a player is greater. I do not want to go so far as to assess the political situation between Azerbaijan and Armenia. But a player can’t play because of his nationality. This is serious. He has no criminal record or anything else, he was only born in another country,” says Gunesch.
Arsenal is “bitterly disappointed”, Bernd Leno speaks of a “scandal”, the fans go on the barricades – and rightly so. UEFA merely referred to its “comprehensive security plan”, which would have been handed to the gunners.
UEFA’s criticism of the Baku final is out of its mind. The Arsenal stars want to show solidarity, for example in the form of warm-up jerseys with Mkhitaryan’s name on the back. But this requires the approval of UEFA, which nipped the idea in the bud. The Road to Baku becomes a nightmare for the association.
So far, UEFA has defended the bid for Baku, which is their right. The award of the contract was carried out in an orderly and transparent manner. UEFA revealed the ten criteria for the venue of the final match:
The UEFA report states that this will ensure that the event can be organised successfully.
The human rights situation and the political situation in the applicant country do not seem to play a role. “Things are decisive here that almost all can be bought with money without exception,” says Gunesch.
UEFA’s transparency is flimsy. For example, the Executive Committee rated the airport in Seville as “insufficient”, but the airport in Baku as “sufficient”. The limitation to 6000 tickets per team is based on the exact opposite assessment.
Apart from the Mkhitaryan scandal and the travel hardships, Baku has problems with supposed trifles. “None of the transmitting stations currently have a power connection. We just got the call. The OB vans currently have no electricity – and that 48 hours before the game,” says Gunesch shortly before his departure.
“Criteria like infrastructure are important. But if that doesn’t even fit, it’s a shame for the venue, but then it’s not the right venue,” says Gunesch. This reduces the number of candidates enormously, “but at least you allow the fans to experience this game live. UEFA in particular proclaims that it is a game for the fans. This is somewhat counteracted by such decisions.
The game for the fans becomes a game for the completely stupid hardcore fans – such as Jake and Kevin there are.
