Chronicle Editor
- 25 000 fans expected to attend final
- Finalists set to get 8 000 tickets
Fury has erupted over plans for up to 8 000 English football fans to get tickets to the Champions League final in Turkey this month as Uefa will try to host the match in front of a stadium of thousands despite the country’s Covid outbreak.
Manchester City and their opponents in the final will receive up to 4 000 tickets each for fans to attend the match in Turkey — and the second finalists could be Chelsea if they win on Wednesday night, taking the British contingent to 8 000.
Football chiefs and Turkish authorities are believed to be drawing up plans to accommodate 25 000 spectators at the Ataturk Stadium for the match on May 29. If they are approved, the stadium in Istanbul will host a third of its 76 000-capacity.
But staging the game will make a “mockery” of Britain’s efforts to stamp out Covid, according to an MP and public health experts, who say English fans shouldn’t be allowed to attend.
Turkey — currently in a lockdown set to end on May 17 — has a coronavirus infection rate 12 times higher than Britain’s, with 370 new cases per million people announced yesterday, compared to 30. There were 31 200 more positive tests confirmed on Tuesday alongside just 2 000 in the UK.
Clive Efford, MP for Eltham in Greenwich, South East London, said: “It is a risk not worth taking at this stage.”
Kevin Brennan, MP for Cardiff West, told MailOnline that if Chelsea make it through the match should be moved to Britain. He said: “I know it would be a blow for Istanbul but . . . it would certainly be safer from a Covid point of view.”
City eased their way to their first Champions League final with a stunning 2-0 win over Paris Saint-Germain at the Etihad Stadium, last night, to go with their 2-1 win in France.
Chelsea were playing Spanish giants Real Madrid on Wednesday night in hope of clinching the other place in the final — they drew 1-1 in Madrid in the first leg.
It is currently still illegal for Brits to travel abroad for non-essential reasons but this is expected to change on May 17, when the Foreign Office is likely to allow people to fly to countries with low Covid infection rates. Turkey has a slim chance of being on the green list, however, because it’s currently one of the worst-hit countries in Europe and has a slow vaccine rollout. This would mean fans must self-isolate for 10 days after returning to the UK.
Within hours of the City match finishing last night, the club asked supporters to express their interest if they wanted to attend the final at the Ataturk Stadium, with The Times reporting 4 000 would be offered tickets.
Sources have told the paper the clubs may be permitted to sell even more tickets than their allocation if they organise the travel via official packages.
However, the final arrangements will be influenced by the UK government’s travel restrictions, expected to be announced on Friday, which will determine whether fans would have to quarantine on their return.
Turkey is currently in a “full lockdown” until May 17. It has suffered a devastating spike of coronavirus, with a peak of 60 000 cases and 300 deaths a day in April and rates of infection remain thirteen times higher than the UK.
In addition, scientists say that Turkish scientists have a limited capacity to analyse the virus so there is not much reliable information about variants that may be circulating there.
The Kent, South Africa and Brazilian variants — those most concerning scientists — are all known to be spreading there but it is not clear which strain is dominant, nor whether there are others that might be worrying.
British Prime Minister and Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the discovery of a new variant that can escape vaccine immunity is the number one threat to getting life back to normal in the UK, and the government is desperate to avoid it happening. Strict travel curbs are likely to stay in place for months in order to achieve this.
Vaccine minister Nadhim Zahawi refused to be drawn on the prospect of English fans travelling to Turkey for the match when questioned on BBC Breakfast today.
But Clive Efford, MP for Eltham, said: “To allow English fans to travel to and from Turkey would make a mockery of all the measures we have taken over recent months during lockdown.”
“It is a risk not worth taking at this stage, particularly because we are concerned about new variants emerging and whether vaccines are effective against them,” added Efford, who is a qualified FA coach and life-long Millwall fan.
“And if it is two English clubs in the final it makes sense to move it from Istanbul.”
Labour MP Kevin Brennan, a member of Parliament’s Culture Committee, told MailOnline that Uefa should “urgently” look again at moving the final to England.
“If it were to be between Chelsea and Manchester City it would make eminent sense to move it to Wembley or another suitable location in the UK,” he said.
“I know it would be a blow for Istanbul but surely a future final could be arranged to compensate. They could possibly have a greater capacity for the fans, and it would certainly be safer from a Covid point of view.”
He added: “It doesn’t make a lot of sense to proceed in Istanbul when it would be a lot safer (in the UK).” — BBC Sport
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