Chelsea and Arsenal are set to contest the Europa League final – but only a fraction of tonight’s stadium will be fans of the Premier League giants.
The final is being held at the Baku Olympic Stadium in Azerbaijan, a 6,000-mile round trip from London.
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Chelsea and Arsenal have returned thousands of tickets ahead of the final in Baku
After Chelsea and Arsenal got past their semi-final opponents, the logistics and costs of getting to the venue have caused mayhem for both sets of supporters.
UEFA were slammed for only allocating 12,000 tickets to the English duo in the 70,000 capacity stadium.
But due to the travel nightmare of getting to Baku, Chelsea and Arsenal have sent back a combined 6,000 tickets.
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Despite that blow for the Prem giants, UEFA claim they are still on course for a Europa League final sell-out.
A spokesperson said: “Approximately 6,000 tickets have been returned by the two finalists together.
Chelsea vs Arsenal live on talkSPORT: Commentary stream, team news and match stats for Europa League final
“The majority of these tickets have already been sold to local fans in Azerbaijan and we are confident that the remaining ones will also be sold as demand is very high.”
Both Unai Emery and Maurizio Sarri have hit out at the location of the final ahead of the big game.
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Arsenal boss Unai Emery has hit out at the location of the Europa League final
Arsenal boss Emery said: “I didn’t exactly understand what is the reason between playing in one place and another. I’d prefer to play closer to England because we are two English teams and can move a lot of supporters to be with us.
“I don’t know really how they decided to play there. After it’s going to be only 6,000 supporters from us and Chelsea but the stadium has a capacity for 68,000. I think it’ll be full but not with our supporters.”
Chelsea boss Sarri echoed Emery’s comments, saying: “The location is a big problem, for the fans. I would like it to be in another location.”
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Sarri and Emery’s sides will battle it out in Baku
UEFA officials have been on a major push to offload tickets over the past week after the final was snubbed by fans but also by official sponsors.
Corporate clients have sent back a chunk of their allocations having suffered the same travel headaches as supporters.
The limited capacity at Baku’s Heydar Aliyev Airport means lengthy flights and high costs, which have been too problematic even for some of the sponsors to solve.
Can’t get to the Europa League final? Tune into live commentary on talkSPORT with our coverage from Baku getting underway at 7pm
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