UEFA has defended its decision to allocate a small fraction of the ticket for the 2019 Europa League final which will feature Chelsea and Arsenal. The European football governing body gave each club just 6,000 tickets for the all-English final scheduled for May 29 at the 68,700 seater Olympic Stadium in Baku, Azerbaijan.
In wake of the development, both Chelsea and Arsenal are reportedly working to get a more improved percentage of the tickets and the latter even described the situation as "disappointing" in a statement released on Friday. Nevertheless, UEFA has revealed that there is no alterior motive behind the ticket allocations for both Chelsea and Arsenal.
Per a statement released by the association, the host city of Baku will be unable to handle a troop of over 15,000 fans, hence the decision to award both Chelsea and Arsenal 6,000 seats apiece.
"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," the 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.
"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."
Relatively, fans of Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool have expressed their dissatisfaction towards UEFA after it allocated just 16,613 tickets for the Champions League final in Atletico Madrid's 68,000-capacity Wanda Metropolitano stadium.
