Arsenal Women were scheduled to welcome Bayern Munich to Emirates Stadium, on Wednesday 18th December, kick-off 8PM UK, in the return leg of a two-leg fixture in the UEFA Women’s Champions League group stage.
Bayern beat our Gunners 5-2 in the away fixture in Munich, in early October. Arsenal need to find a big response to that defeat if they want to go top of their UWCL Group. And the Emirates would have been the place to do that.. indeed, everything was in place for our women to play at N5, even with tickets sold to fans for the event. This game will also be the deciding game to see who finishes at the top our Group!
Unfortunately, Arsenal have taken the decision to move the Women’s Champions League match to Meadow Park, which has a capacity of only 4,500, as the Arsenal men now have a Carabao Cup fixture to play against Crystal Palace..
Our @UWCL match against Bayern Munich will now take place at the Mangata Pay UK Stadium Meadow Park on Wednesday 18th December.
Full details on the fixture change can be found here 👇
— Arsenal Women (@ArsenalWFC) November 18, 2024
Full statement from Arsenal website, reference the change of venue:
We can confirm that our UEFA Women’s Champions League match against Bayern Munich will take place at the Mangata Pay UK Stadium Meadow Park, Borehamwood on Wednesday, December 18 at 8pm.
Supporters who have already purchased a ticket for the Emirates Stadium fixture will automatically receive a full refund and this will be processed back onto their original method of payment within the next 10 working days.
All supporters who purchased a ticket for the original fixture will have a 24-hour priority access window to purchase a new ticket for the match at Meadow Park. This window will open at 2pm on Tuesday, November 26, with tickets available on a first-come, first-served basis (subject to availability).
Fans, understandably, are up in arms about the change of venue with statements such as:
“you lot (Arsenal) have actually disgraced the fans and the club a damn f*****g sham”
“This is an absolute joke on so many levels”
“”one club” yet the carabao somehow more important than the f*****g UWCL.”
“1 step forward, 3 steps back.”
“Still p****d we literally got booted out of the Emirates One Club my ass..”
“absolute joke for a club that prides itself on ‘one club’ mentality”
“Carabao cup over champions league?”
Arsenal Women made it as far as the semi-finals in 2022-23 season, selling out the Emirates stadium when our Gunners faces German giants, Wolfsburg. Surely we shouldn’t be playing something as prestigious as the Champions League at Meadow Park. Not least of all because so many less fans will be able to attend and support?
What are your thoughts Gooners? Is this a massive statement from the club?
Michelle M
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Michelle M,
Like it or not, there was always going to be the chance of the lady’s games clashing with the men’s.
And with the calendar for the men being bigger than the lady’s in terms of fitting the men’s fixture in as opposed to it being easier to fit the lady’s game in, it’s not really that difficult to see why the decision has been made.
Unfortunate as it is for the supporters that had already bought tickets. But the club have given them other options, as inconvenient as this might be, sometimes these things happen.
I can’t see why for the life of me that the Arsenal hierarchy couldn’t have found another venue with a much bigger capacity to satisfy the numbers of fans.
The Women’s match in this instance is more important than the Carabao Cup and solutions will have to found in the future. The women’s game is growing and if Arsenal women can fill the stadium in big ties then it’s not good enough to demean them by expecting them to play in Boreham Wood in front of 4500 people.
Sue,
Arsenal women will be playing their League Cup and FA Cup games at Boreham Wood as I understand it.
Will that demean them in any way.
Tickets have been sold but how many? If it had been a sell out then the women’s games should not have been moved.
Last season the women’s team had unprecedented success when they sold out the ground but this season we have already had one Champions League match that only drew five thousand fans.
We have totally messed up but it would have been worse if the men’s game was moved and the women’s game was played before a half empty stadium.
Can’t dispute your figures regarding the attendance but the team in question was Valerenga from Oslo who have lost all their fixtures so far. It’s one of those situations that arise- also in the men’s game when playing against very weak opposition and people decide to stay at home and watch it on tv
On average, the women’s attendances have been around 34000 on average this season and the likes of Bayern Munich and Juventus would be a bigger draw
The Valerenga game was also the second in a week at the Emirates, which was an incredibly ambitious schedule.
The game will decide who finishes top of the group but as Michelle says we lost badly away and will need to find a big response to go top of the Group. It is very hard to see us winning by three goals although it is likely we would have already qualified and possibly it will not be much of a game certainly not comparable to a semi final where there everything to play for.
Nabilo
Interestingly, since Jonas Eideveld departed, the women have come on in leaps and bounds and could make a much better fist of it against BM
True but it is still at least three goals to make up against a quality side.
Bayern do not even to come out and play – they have the the option of parking the bus to win the group.
I’m a longstanding supporter and season ticket holder of AWFC. Although I am disappointed that I am unlikely to get a ticket
for this game I’m certainly not “up in arms” as I can see that this situation has arisen because of “perfect storm” circumstances as the Club tries to accomodate two first teams in one stadium. Most fans appreciate that the Club has put a lot of resources into AWFC and has led the way in backing it’s women for the best part of 40 years.
In the footballing sense I feel the switch to MP will give us a true home advantage. I can’t see Bayern relishing facing a team stoked-up by 3,500* of our noisiest and most passionate Gooners in the confines of our original home where we became the only British team to have lifted the WCL.
* this is actually now the capacity of Meadow Park. Its been many years since more than 4k have filled the stadium.
Very interesting to read your opinion and experience.
Longer term though, some better arrangements need to be put in place, I’d have thought.
As much as I feel for the Arsenal women and supporters, it’s just economics.
No matter how much we want the women’s game to be seen as attractive and important as the men’s game, it isn’t. Palace will bring it’s full allocation of supporters and a semi final place is up for grabs. It’s a London derby as well.
I hope we beat Bayern soundly and finish top of the group, that will be one way of sending a message to the hierarchy, but we are within touching distance of our first trophy under MA as a manager with his own players and that is the No. 1 priority for the club….. in my opinion.
I also note that there are still tickets available for Thursday night’s game against Juventus at the Emirates, along with tickets for the Palace game.
It will be interesting to see what the final attendance figures will be for a comparison.
I said in my earlier piece that the men have more games to play, and therefore it made perfect sense that the women’s team schedule would be easier to rearrange than the men’s.
It’s unfortunate, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles as they say.
There were 10,000 fans for tonight’s game at the Emirates.
I wonder if the club broke even, monetary wise?
Great result though and through to the quarter finals!!