Chelsea says it won’t support Baku’s nearby government’s plans to help the club’s enthusiasts get to Wednesday’s Europa League final.
Chelsea will play Arsenal in the Azerbaijani capital, and English fanatics have questioned Uefa’s preference of venue for its difficulty in attaining.
Baku officials want enthusiasts to fly to neighboring Georgia and then travel 580km overland to the sport as one solution.
“It is not an option that the membership feels it can recommend,” Chelsea stated.
The club spoke out after Chelsea Supporters Trust criticized it for lack of help for fanatics trying to get to the game.
“We sympathize with the troubles our supporters face setting up travel to Azerbaijan for the sport,” Chelsea said.
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The club introduced it has been running with Arsenal and journey agency Thomas Cook Sport to look at ways to assist enthusiasts to travel to Azerbaijan.
“Unfortunately, various factors outdoor the club’s control have made employer a complicated and hard system,” it stated.
“This consists of the place of the very last being 2,500 miles from London, a loss of available charter aircraft and shipping infrastructure which limited the range of flights capable of arriving in Baku around the very last.”
Local authorities in Baku have instructed European football’s governing body Uefa they have organized “an opportunity alternative for supporters of each club to reach Baku,” Chelsea explained.
That might suggest flying to Tbilisi in neighboring Georgia and then using ground transportation to Baku. That distance is a few 580km distance and often made using a 12-hour overnight teach carrier.
“We are thankful to the local establishing committee for supplying this selection,” Chelsea said. “And while we knew it might be less expensive than flying to Baku, it is not an honest adventure, and there will be no stewarding or the ordinary supporter safety measures onboard educate travel from Tbilisi to Baku.
“It isn’t an alternative that the club feels it could endorse as a first-class opportunity travel course for supporters still wishing to travel to Baku.”
The club stated there were additionally “uncertainties around the viability” of a proposed greater charter flight that was counseled.
It introduced it might “hold to work with all relevant enterprises” to assist fanatics with tickets to get to the sport.
Both Chelsea and Arsenal had been allocated 6,000 tickets.
Arsenal has offered simply over half in their 3,000 price ticket allocation, and it’s the far notion a similarly wide variety of Chelsea tickets were sold.
Chelsea Supporters Trust stated it changed into “disenchanted Chelsea have been unable or unwilling to assist supporters in overcoming travel, price, and logistics.
“This is despite the trust’s guidelines on how the members may want to offer material help to supporters wishing to go to Baku.”
It also became vital a loss of subsidy from the club to help fans, notwithstanding it “having calculated the negligible monetary impact at the club given the sales earned from the competition this season.”
