Aston Villa decision for fewer fans to City Ground in Europa League clash explained
Aston Villa’s decision in bringing a smaller number of fans to City Ground in the Europa League clash has its own reason.
Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest are set to meet again in the Europa League semi-final on Thursday. It takes place just a few weeks after their last encounters in the Premier League.
In regard to their upcoming clash, Villa have decided to bring fewer fans to support John McGinn and Co directly than Forest would next week when they pay a visit to Villa Park. In fact, the tickets available for the away fans in the City Ground for this Thursday’s game are even less than the number of tickets for the Premier League clash, which might have upset the fans.
According to the report from Aston Villa correspondent, John Townley in Birmingham Mail,
“Villa are set to take around 1,300 fewer fans to Nottingham than they did for the 1-1 draw in the Premier League earlier this month.”
Such a thing surely raises the question among those who are not familiar with the ticketing stuff. The reason is quite simple. It has different regulations.
Ticketing rules in the Europa League
The regulation for away fans in European competition is fairly different from the one in the Premier League. Thus, it affects the numbers of fans allowed to support the team inside the stadium quite significantly.
Based on UEFA regulations, the club can only stipulate a minimum of as many as five per cent of the stadium capacity for the tickets of the visiting team supporters. It means that based on the capacity of Nottingham Forest’s City Ground, which can only hold over 3044 fans, all away teams can have a minimum of 1522 tickets.
Aston Villa reportedly only agreed to provide 1,699 tickets for their fans going inside the stadium. This venue was once hosting several games in EURO 1996 but not included as one of the hosting venues in the upcoming EURO 2028 in the UK and Republic of Ireland, whereas Villa Park is set to host in both editions.
The Lions seem satisfied with such numbers as 1,699 Villa fans compared to presumably 28,000 home fans would not quite be a stark contrast to the numbers in the second leg.
In the reverse fixture, Villa Park has a bigger capacity than their rival’s home turf. Currently, it can hold over 43,000 people. Yet, after the North Stand rebuilding, the stadium can upgrade the capacity up to 50,000 spectators. Villa has reportedly approved the allocation for Forest fans of as many as 2,162 tickets. Such a number will be definitely outnumbered by approximately 40,000 home fans who will be cheering for Unai Emery’s men in the clash on May 7 later.
How different is it to the Premier League?
So how is it different from the Premier League rule? In the English top-flight competition, each club can only allocate a minimum of 3000 tickets for away fans.
Such is an obligatory rule for the team whose venue can fill as many as 30,000 spectators or more. However, if the stadium’s capacity is less than 30,000, then the club can provide fewer than 3,000 tickets for the visiting fans.
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