UEFA accused of ‘disproportionately excluding' disabled fans from Europa League final

New York Times

20-05-2025

UEFA has been accused of 'disproportionately excluding' disabled fans from Wednesday's Europa League final between Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur.
Level Playing Field, a campaigning group for the rights of disabled football fans, has highlighted that the number of wheelchair and easy access seating spaces made available for the game at the San Mames Stadium in Bilbao, falls well below UEFA's own guidelines.
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Each club has been given just 26 wheelchair and 15 easy access (defined as seats which provide extra room for those with limited mobility) spaces for the final, when they should have been provided with around double that.
San Mames, home of Athletic Club since it opened in 2013, has a capacity of 53,000, which includes 208 wheelchair spaces and 102 easy access seats. UEFA's guidelines recommend that a stadium of that capacity should have around 236 wheelchair spaces and another 236 'amenity and easy access seats', meaning that from start, the stadium does not comply.
However, even in that context, the provision for the final is inadequate. Between them, the clubs have been given just under 30,000 tickets for the game, or 56 per cent of the stadium's capacity. Proportionately, each club should have been given 58 wheelchair spaces and 28 easy access seats.
'Disabled fans have not been considered a priority, regardless of how you approach this situation,' Tony Taylor, chair of Level Playing Field, said in a news release. 'Inadequate provisions are set to result in disproportionate exclusion, on a day when fanbases should be united for a celebration.
'Instead, we have seen another failure from UEFA at a showpiece event. Accountability has been lacking before and now we can see more disregard for disabled fans, which ignores the governing body's own guidance and underutilises the facilities available, without adequate justification.
'We know that there are additional barriers to European travel for many disabled fans. To then have further barriers put in place through ticketing and a lack of facilities, and be disproportionally (sic) locked out of occasions like this, is unacceptable.'
Disabled supporters' associations from both clubs backed Level Playing Field, and further criticised UEFA for seemingly not considering the needs of disabled fans.
'To see that in 2025 we are still not receiving a fair allocation of accessible tickets, which fall short of UEFA's own guidelines, is extremely disappointing and reinforces the fact that disability is often an afterthought,' said Manchester United Disabled Supporters' Association secretary, Rick Clement.
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'We understand that different venues have different facilities available, but the Bilbao venue can easily cater for a larger number of disabled fans for both teams.
SpursAbility co-chair, Dr Rita Egan, added: 'We fully agree with the comments from Level Playing Field.
'SpursAbility have expressed our extreme disappointment at this allocation from the outset.
'The numbers for both fanbases are wholly insufficient. There should at least have been a proportionate distribution of the spaces available at the stadium, in line with the general allocation.
'We have members who have travelled anyway and could be contacted straight away if those spaces were made available.'
The Athletic highlighted in March the problems faced by disabled supporters at games in England, with eight of the current 20 Premier League teams not providing the recommended number of wheelchair spaces at their stadiums.
When asked for comment by The Athletic, a UEFA spokesperson said: 'UEFA is committed to ensuring a barrier-free experience for disabled fans and are working hard to improve both standards and experiences related to this.
'We have clear requirements around our stadium infrastructure and ticketing allocations, and these clearly set out the scene for what is considered across UEFA events. When determining allocations including accessible seats multiple factors need to be taken into consideration such as the quality of sightlines, historical demand and the balance between accessible seating and overall stadium capacity.
'The provision of quality sightlines is a decisive factor when determining whether a seat can be offered at a UEFA club final but we also factor historical demand as this is a way in which we manage to increase the numbers in accordance to demand.
'For context: For the UEFA Women's Champions League Final 2024 in Bilbao, we allocated 60 seats and sold 59. For the UEFA Europa League Final 2024 in Dublin, we allocated 93 seats and sold 41.
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'While quality remains a priority, UEFA did investigate solutions that could be implemented to increase accessible seating capacity for this final. As part of our standard procedure, UEFA has engaged with the Disability Access Officers (DAOs) of both finalist clubs. While both indicated they could sell more accessible tickets, they also expressed a preference for maintaining the current allocations rather than increasing numbers at the expense of seat quality.
'Please note the 208 wheelchair and 102 easy access seats that are quoted are from a 2019 Centre for Access to Football in Europe (CAFE) audit which does not automatically translate into usable seats as per the requirements for UEFA Finals.
'The allocation of the UEFA Europa League Final in Bilbao is 75 wheelchair positions, each with a free companion seat and guaranteed sightlines. Currently, 15 per cent of these tickets remain unsold and available for purchase.'
Additional reporting: Elias Burke and Mark Critchley