Villa offer to host Champions League showdown in face of Istanbul doubts
Villa Park last night emerged as a possible venue for the Champions League final after plans to force Manchester City and Chelsea fans to travel to Turkey provoked anger.
News of Aston Villa’s willingness to step in emerged as a growing number of MPS and public health experts condemned plans to stage the all-english final on May 29 in a country with a Covid infection rate 12 times that of the UK.
Turkey went into its first full lockdown last week, with the highest infection rate in Europe.
Uefa was last night going ahead with its plan to hold the match in Istanbul, which intends to welcome up to 12,000 City and Chelsea fans in a third-full Ataturk Stadium.
Sources said that even if Turkey’s Covid crisis forced a switch, the game would only be moved to England if the UK relaxed rules that mean almost everyone entering the country has to self-isolate for up to 10 days.
Those stipulations could stop Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin and a host of other dignitaries attending.
That is not expected to change under government plans to ease border restrictions on May 17, meaning City and Chelsea supporters travelling to Istanbul would also have to quarantine upon their return to the UK.
Fan leaders from those clubs have already called for the rules to be relaxed for the final and they were joined last night by their counterparts from Europa League finalists Manchester United.
They said they wanted those travelling to the games to be given the option of doing so in a Covid-secure bubble using specially-chartered flights and coaches that would see them avoid having to quarantine.
Oli Winton of the Manchester United Supporters’ Trust said: “Not seeing your own team play in a European final is alien to many of us but quarantine could simply make it unworkable.”