Arsenal will face Chelsea in the Europa League final next week, but there are reportedly concerns for the club over how many fans will make the trip to Baku.
As noted by BBC Sport, Gunners ace Henrikh Mkhitaryan won’t make the trip due to ongoing political issues between Armenia and Azerbaijan which have raised question marks over security.
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That in itself led to a backlash from many over Baku hosting the event, as it surely can’t be deemed acceptable for a player to miss out on such a big moment in his career due to matters out of his control.
However, that might not be the only issue that Arsenal are facing ahead of the clash next Wednesday night, as The Sun report that they’re struggling to sell their allocation of 6,000 tickets.
It’s noted that only 3,500 tickets have been sold to date with under a week to go, and that the Gunners staff are even phoning fans to try and sell the remaining tickets.
Given the distance and cost of getting to the game, it’s no real surprise that fans are struggling to justify making the trip, and so Arsenal will surely be concerned in the coming days that they will have a smaller travelling group than hoped for.
If that materialises, it will surely be a huge shame for all concerned to miss out on such a big event, with the Gunners hoping to land a major trophy to end the season, the first of Unai Emery’s spell at the Emirates.
Nevertheless, barring a miraculous last surge in ticket sales, it appears as though their end of the stadium may be looking a little threadbare, or perhaps locals will be invited to take those seats instead to ensure that they aren’t entirely wasted.