Liverpool tickets: PITIFUL Europa League final allocation REVEALED

Liverpool are expected to receive ONLY 13,000 tickets for the upcoming Europa League final, spelling potential disappointment for thousands of fans. 

The final will take place at the Aviva Stadium - the Dublin Arena in UEFA parlance - on 22 May with the stadium's capacity standing at just over 51,000.

According to a report in the Daily Mail, only around HALF of those seats will be reserved for supporters of the two finalists.

The rest, depressingly, will go to various UEFA dignitaries, corporates and VIPs.

Liverpool are through to the Europa League quarter-finals, where they face Atalanta over two legs, and are the favourites to win the trophy ahead of Bayern Leverkusen, AC Milan and Roma, among others. 

Accordingly, Reds fans both in Ireland and from abroad are preparing to battle it out in UEFA’s ballot for final tickets should the Merseysiders get past Atalanta and then either Marseille or Benfica in the semis. 

That will mean a lot of disappointed fans as Ireland’s Liverpool fan population alone stands at many multiples of that number. 

The final ticket ballot is expected to be opened sometime in April.

With the Reds strong favourites to reach Dublin, the Europa League remains the only trophy Jurgen Klopp hasn’t won as Reds manager thus far, with this season’s final potentially marking a glorious end of his Liverpool era. 

UEFA plans for disruption

It is understood that the FAI and UEFA have held discussions in the last few days in order to best prepare for the final should Liverpool get there and to ensure any disruption is kept to a minimum. 

Hotel rooms are scarce in Dublin with availability and price around big events long being a problem for visitors. The Europa League final will be no different. 

Moreover the capital’s airport does not connect to the city centre by rail, necessitating a bus journey of up to one hour for a trip of barely seven kilometres. 

Supporters in Ireland have already been encouraged to ditch the car as parking will be unavailable and numerous road closures are expected around Dublin for the event. 

But with Klopp’s Liverpool farewell potentially happening in the Irish capital, it is expected that fans will nonetheless come in their droves meaning the city centre will be filled up. 

One risk-mitigating plan the authorities are considering is opening Croke Park, a Gaelic Games stadium of over 82,000 capacity, as an additional fan zone to keep fans from the streets. However that plan is expected to meet a certain amount of resistance from locals. 

UEFA has faced scrutiny in recent seasons for organisation of its finals and potential flashpoints.

The last two Champions League finals were engulfed in chaos, with Liverpool fans being locked out of the Stade de France in Paris in 2022 and Manchester City fans stranded a long way outside Istanbul when buses from the Ataturk Stadium were cancelled last year.