The 2024 UEFA Champions League final is nearly upon us as Real Madrid take on Borussia Dortmund.
This year's final takes place at the "home of football" in London, England at Wembley Stadium.
Wembley has hosted eight finals in its history, but this will only be the third time it has played host since its renovation in 2007. The most recent final at this venue also featured Dortmund: they were beaten 2-1 by domestic rivals Bayern Munich back in 2013.
Fans in their thousands will be eager to take in the action, but UEFA's allocation — often a contentious issue — means plenty will be disappointed. Indeed, there has been a lot of criticism of the number of seats that are being reserved for corporate attendees or general interest instead of being granted to clubs.
The Sporting News takes a look at the capacity of the stadium and how the tickets are distributed among fans.
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Wembley Stadium capacity: Total crowd, seat allocation for 2024 Champions League final
Wembley Stadium has an official capacity of 90,000, but UEFA, European football’s governing body in charge of the Champions League final, will only distribute 86,600 tickets for the 2024 game.
As is common for finals, these tickets will be divided among the participating clubs, the general public, and commercial partners.
How this distribution works is as follows:
- 60,000 will be available for fans and the general public
- 25,000 go to the supporters of Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid
- 26,600 tickets will not be available to the public. According to UEFA, these tickets are reserved for "the local organising structure, UEFA's member national associations, commercial partners, broadcasters, and UEFA".
The fact that only 25,000 tickets will go to each club for allocation to supporters has caused frustration, even though it is an increase on recent years. The Football Supporters Europe association (FSE) said: "The FSE calls on UEFA and the local organisers to do right by the supporters and increase these allocations.
"Some encouraging progress has been made in recent seasons following repeated calls to do so by FSE. The 2023/24 UEFA Champions League Final at Wembley will see the largest finalists' allocation for the competition in a decade (58 per cent), while for the Europa Conference League Final in Athens, 66 per cent of tickets will go to the finalist clubs' supporters, which is an all-time high for any UEFA club competition final.
"Despite this, a consistent approach across all finals is still needed. A paltry 50 per cent of capacity for Europa League finalist clubs is, simply, not good enough and falls well short of FSE's demand to provide at least 66 per cent of tickets for all European finals to supporters of the teams involved.
"Fans of competing teams need to be given clear priority over public sale options."
How much do Champions League final tickets cost?
UEFA uses a tiered pricing system for different sections of the stadium.
The 'Fans First' category, reserved for supporters of the two teams, costs £60 per ticket.
'Category 3' tickets are priced at £160, 'Category 2' tickets at £430, and the most expensive 'Category 1' tickets at £610.
If fans are unsuccessful in the general sale, tickets may be available through third-party websites, but these are sold at a significantly higher price.
Accessibility tickets for disabled spectators cost £60 and include one complementary companion ticket. UEFA has not specified the number of tickets available at each price point.
When is the UEFA Champions League final 2024?
The 2024 UEFA Champions League final is scheduled to be held on Saturday, June 1, at Wembley Stadium, London, U.K.
The match has been confirmed as an 8 p.m. BST kickoff in the U.K., 3 p.m. ET in the USA and Canada, and 5 a.m. AEST in Australia.
| Country | Date | Kickoff Time |
|---|---|---|
| Australia | Sun, June 2 | 5 a.m. AEST |
| Canada | Sat, June 1 | 3 p.m. EDT |
| Hong Kong | Sun, June 2 | 3 a.m. HKT |
| India | Sun, June 2 | 12:30 a.m. IST |
| Malaysia | Sun, June 2 | 3 a.m. MYT |
| New Zealand | Sun, June 2 | 7 a.m. NZST |
| Singapore | Sat, June 1 | 3 a.m. SST |
| UK | Sat, June 1 | 8 p.m. BST |
| USA | Sat, June 1 | 3 p.m. EDT |
