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Arsenal Women were scheduled to face Bayern Munich in a crucial Champions League game at the Emirates next month but will likely need to relocate due to the clashes with the men’s calendar.
The group-stage game had been slated for a 20:00 GMT kick-off at the Emirates next month, as the side look to become the first English team to lift the trophy since it was renamed and relaunched in 2009.
The north London side did win the older iteration of the competition, the UEFA Women’s Cup, in the 2006/07 season.
Why Arsenal Women may have to move their Champions League fixture to accommodate the men
The club had been selling tickets for the Bayern clash since September, envisaging the game to be held at the Emirates, with the venue being announced as the main home of Arsenal Women earlier this year.
That made for a headache this week, as their men’s side were drawn to face Crystal Palace at home in the Carabao Cup quarter-final, with 18 December the only date available to the fellow London side.
Due to playing televised games the previous Sunday and the following Saturday, the Eagles can only play on that Wednesday while still allowing for two rest days in between each game.
BBC Sport revealed that Arsenal are looking at alternative venues for the women’s game, including last season’s primary home venue, Meadow Park in Borehamwood — although conversations are ongoing as the venue is not believed to meet all of UEFA’s requirements.
Meadow Park, 12 miles north of the Emirates, is also the home of non-league men’s side Borehamwood and can hold around 4500 spectators.
In contrast, Arsenal Women averaged around 31000 fans in attendance for their Women’s Super League games at one stage last season, many held at the Emirates, including their record-breaking 60050 tickets sold for their meeting with rivals Tottenham Hotspur. It has not been made public how many tickets have already been sold for the upcoming Bayern game, but Forbes reported their belief that the figure stood at somewhere close to 7500.
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It is clear to FourFourTwo that the clash makes for an extremely uncomfortable position for Arsenal, who will be only too aware of the optics of shifting a crucial women’s Champions League fixture for the men to face off in the Carabao Cup — something you likely would not see happening the other way round.
However, there is no clear route to keep everybody happy. According to Forbes, EFL Cup rules state clubs must nominate their stadiums before the competition begins, ruling out a venue switch for the men, and UEFA rules state that all games in the final round of group-stage games in the Champions League must kick off at the same time, denying a double-header.
It’s a difficult situation, but with a calendar renowned for fixture congestion — and two teams liable to go deep into competitions — one that Arsenal executives perhaps should have foreseen, with a clearly communicated contingency plan in place from the start.
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