Published: 25 January, 2008, 09:24
Edited: 25 January, 2008, 09:24
There's bad news for Russian fans hoping to go Euro-2008 in Austria and Switzerland. Only 6,000 tickets were allocated to Russia. Most of those are for seats behind the goals.
The Russian Football Union says it wants more VIP tickets. Union President Vitaly Mutko says the current situation is unacceptable.
“We are not satisfied with what UEFA's offered to our association. 80 per cent of the tickets are category three, practically behind the goal. There are almost no category one or VIP tickets. Most of our fans and partners would prefer those. We asked UEFA to sell us more VIP seats and hopefully the Russian fans will get tickets in the hospitality zone, which is another VIP area,” Mutko said.
To preserve the domestic league's integrity, next season's fixtures in the Russian Premier League will be suspended during the European championships.
It’s because many of the top sides will lose players to the national side who've qualified for the tournament.
The new season starts mid-march but all action will stop for around six weeks from the middle of May.
That gives Guus Hiddink time to assemble his squad before the European Championships start on June 7 in Austria and Switzerland.