Watching the Europa League Final, courtesy of BT Sport’s YouTube channel, I had nothing but admiration for those hardy souls, from Chelsea and Arsenal, who made an epic journey into the unknown.
I still maintain that it was a foolhardy decision, made by UEFA, to play the final in such a remote European footballing outpost, but, then again, it is nothing new, it’s happened before on two occasions involving Chelsea, namely the Champions League Final in Moscow against Manchester United and the Champions League Final in Munich when we had to win it in Bayern’s own backyard.
I accept that plans have to be put in place, in advance, but surely there has to be a bit of leeway and common-sense involved with a possible Plan B to bring into action.
But returning to Baku, it was noticeable that as well as the pitch being a long way from the stands there were so many empty seats, in the stadium, for what was a prestigious fixture.
Complications arising from travel and cost had already seen Chelsea and Arsenal fail to sell their paltry allocations of 6000 tickets, with each club returning their unsold tickets.
But, according to the news source, the Guardian the authorities in Baku did their utmost to fill those empty seats with our referenced source reporting that the turnstiles were opened during the first half to allow the locals free entry into the stadium.
You couldn’t make it up, could you?
But, undoubtedly, UEFA will trot out the official line that the final was nothing short of a rip-roaring success.
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