Arsenal Ladies’s Champions League sport in opposition to Bayern Munich has been moved to Meadow Park to keep away from an Emirates Stadium scheduling conflict with the boys’s workforce.
UEFA has granted “particular dispensation” for Arsenal to play the fixture on the 4,500-capacity stadium, residence to sixth-tier Boreham Wooden, because of the “distinctive mixture of things that required a brand new venue”. Meadow Park’s amenities don’t meet UEFA’s stadium infrastructure laws, which come into power from the group levels of the competitors onwards.
The English Soccer League (EFL) introduced the dates for the Carabao Cup quarter finals earlier this month, with Arsenal’s tie in opposition to Crystal Palace slated for Wednesday, December 18 — the identical day as the ladies’s match in opposition to Bayern.
Each video games have been as a result of be performed on the Emirates after Arsenal acknowledged in Could that they might play eight of their 11 Ladies’s Tremendous League (WSL) video games and all three of their Champions League group fixtures on the north London stadium. Tickets for Arsenal’s match in opposition to Bayern had been on sale since September.
Following the EFL’s announcement, Arsenal confirmed that they have been “liaising” with UEFA and additional particulars in regards to the Bayern sport could be forthcoming.
Now the sport will probably be performed on the identical date however at a distinct venue. Supporters who had bought tickets for the Ladies’s Champions League fixture on the Emirates will obtain a full refund, and new tickets will probably be accessible from Tuesday November 26 on a first-come, first-served foundation.
Arsenal Ladies have performed fixtures on the Emirates with rising regularity lately. Earlier than the Emirates was introduced as their main residence forward of the 2024-25 marketing campaign, Meadow Park had been their residence stadium as a part of a floor share with Boreham Wooden.
Arsenal will play their Champions League residence sport in opposition to Bayern Munich at Meadow Park (Alex Burstow/Arsenal FC through Getty Photographs)
Why did the ladies’s sport need to be moved?
From a males’s fixture scheduling perspective, Tottenham Hotspur are internet hosting Manchester United within the Carabao Cup on Thursday, December 19. Policing guidelines round crowding dictate that Arsenal and Spurs can not play at residence on the identical evening, which dominated out pushing the match again a day.
Arsenal have additionally been scheduled to face Palace on Saturday, December 21 within the late afternoon UK broadcast slot, which was introduced on October 15.
Shifting the Carabao Cup sport ahead a day to Tuesday, December 17 was thought-about, however was unrealistic provided that Palace journey to Brighton & Hove Albion on Sunday, December 15, which might have given them simply at some point between matches. In consequence, Wednesday, December 18 emerged as the one day for the boys’s fixture to be performed.
The Champions League sport can be Arsenal and Bayern’s remaining match earlier than their winter breaks, with the pair not taking part in till mid-January and early February respectively. That, it appears, made it simpler to reschedule their fixture.
(Alex Pantling/Getty Photographs)
