UEFA Europa League final ticket Q&A

How are stadiums selected to host the finals of UEFA club competitions?

The UEFA Executive Committee selects the venues for UEFA's club competition finals. Given the enormous logistical effort involved, stadiums are chosen almost two years in advance. On 18 September 2014, the UEFA Executive Committee chose St. Jakob Park to host the 2016 UEFA Europa League final.

Why was Basel selected?

St. Jakob Park is one of Europe's elite venues and regularly hosts UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League matches. The stadium fulfils all the safety and security and infrastructure criteria to stage a major club competition final. It hosted six UEFA EURO 2008 matches, notably Germany's 3-2 semi-final success against Turkey.

What are the ticket allocations for supporters of the clubs who have reached the final?

At least 9,000 tickets have been reserved for supporters of both clubs. Should any additional tickets become available, UEFA will re-allocate them to fans of the finalists, depending on the requests received from the clubs. The exact number of tickets that each club will receive will be confirmed following meetings between all parties concerned.

Is 35,000 a big enough capacity for the final?

The selection process of stadiums for the UEFA club competition finals takes into account various factors, with capacity being merely one of them. Europe's largest stadiums are usually selected to host the UEFA Champions League final, and UEFA tends to select slightly smaller, top-quality venues for the UEFA Europa League final. This means UEFA can give more of its national associations an opportunity to host a club final, and gives fans across Europe the chance to experience a major final in their home nation. For example, in the last few seasons, we have taken the UEFA Europa League final to Dublin (Porto v Braga in 2011), Bucharest (Athletic Club v Atlético Madrid in 2012), Amsterdam, (Benfica v Chelsea in 2013), Turin (Benfica v Sevilla in 2014) and Warsaw (Dnipro v Sevilla in 2015).

Evidence from the recent finals suggests that stadium capacity and ticket allocation for supporters of the two finalists have been very satisfactory. For those questioning the size of the stadium for this particular final, we would like to note that the number of supporters requesting final tickets varies from club to club, and of course it is impossible to predict in advance which clubs will reach the final.