Let’s start off with the good stuff about tonight’s UEFA Europa League Final between Chelsea and Arsenal. This all- English final, along with the UEFA Champions League Final between Liverpool and Tottenham on Saturday, will see both of these European trophies being won by English clubs. This should be a massive boost for how football is seen in England and win over some fans who don’t always partake to watch such games. Sadly, the controversial decision to have the Europa League final in Baku has led to some very negative headlines and rightly so.
Arsenal’s Armenian midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan has decided against playing amid security reasons because of a dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Baku’s Olympic Stadium holds 70,000 but due to the visa situation and the travel times to Baku, they believe only 5,000 of these will be fans of either club. The stadium will be filled with neutrals, locals, UEFA reps and sponsors.
There were no flights direct from London to Baku for this week, you could have taken the EIGHT day option for this trip but that’s just not feasible for all. UEFA admitted that it wasn’t really expected to be an all-English final and they would rethink stadiums chosen for finals better in the future – but this is just another case of them not thinking about the fans but thinking about the money.
The rumours surrounding the game are also mostly from the Chelsea camp, it’s believed to be Eden Hazard’s last ever game for them as his move to Real Madrid seems to be stepping up for an announcement soon. There are also rumours that Maurizio Sarri is to leave and join Juventus and apparently Derby manager and ex- Chelsea legend Frank Lampard is top on the list of replacements.
With everything surrounding this game, this could be a weird final. Whoever wins I hope they don’t stop trying to get the best locations for these finals for all fans and have an international airport nearby. Modern football sometimes is just not doing things for the money all the time…
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