Champions League & Europa League: Fans send Uefa tickets and travel plan

Chelsea returned half their ticket allocation for the Europa League final in Baku

Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham fans are calling for Uefa to change how it manages the Champions League and Europa League finals.

Problems last season saw fans struggle with travel arrangements and with getting tickets for the Madrid and Baku finals.

Liverpool and Tottenham fans received allocations of under half the capacity of the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium.

Chelsea and Arsenal had around 5,000 fans at Baku's Olympic Stadium.

Uefa has reiterated the difficulties in the planning involved in organising ticket sales and travel for fans.

It said it was "impossible to predict" the teams in the final because venues are chosen two years in advance.

The six-point plan

A joint statement released on Wednesday by the supporters' trusts for Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham and Liverpool asks for:

Allocation - 80% of tickets to be made available to the two competing finalists, with the remaining 20% for sponsors, the football family, key stakeholders and a small general sale.

Capacity - Only stadiums with large capacities to be selected, to ensure maximum ticket availability (60,000 or greater for the Europa League final, 75,000 for the Champions League final).

Affordability - A stretch pricing policy allowing choice for fans.

Accessibility - The highest standards of accessibility for people with disabilities.

Infrastructure - The location to be a city with excellent transport links, including the capacity to deal with additional charter flights, good rail links to nearby cities and airports and bed-space capacity to deal with the number of visitors.

Equality - The host to abide by a human-rights and equality policy that ensures no discrimination or denial of right of entry.

Problems faced by fans

Liverpool and Tottenham fans were allocated 33,286 of the 68,000 tickets for the Champions League final in Madrid.

The remaining tickets for the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium went to the local organising committee, Uefa, national associations, commercial partners, broadcasters and corporate hospitality packages.

For the Europa League final taround 5,000 home-based supporters from Chelsea and Arsenal followed their clubs to Baku, with the Blues sending almost half their allocation back unsold.

Fans were put off by the lack of direct flights as well as price hikes in hotels and the cost of the tickets.

Speaking in June, Uefa said "recent experience" with finals in "comparable venues" meant "the number of finalists' supporters requesting tickets for a Uefa Europa League final can vary greatly from club to club".

The 2020 Champions League final will be held at the Olympic Stadium in Istanbul - famous for Liverpool's comeback victory in 2005 - while Stadion Energa Gdansk in Poland will host this season's Europa League final.

The decision for the 2021 finals will be made on 24 September, with Allianz Arena in Munich and Krestovsky Stadium in St Petersburg bidding for the Champions League final.

Boris Paichadze Dinamo Arena in Tbilisi and Seville's Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan are in the running for the Europa League final.