Arsenal had to cancel their pre-match conference and arrive late in Italy on Tuesday night, amid widespread travel disruption over the last 24 hours.
Nearly 2,000 flights was cancelled on Tuesday following an air traffic control issue, with Arsenal fan plans to travel to Naples and watch Wednesday’s game against Napoli severely impacted.
But it wasn’t just the supporters feeling the effects of the disruption, with the Arsenal squad also unable to travel until much later than planned.
Arsenal were meant to be in Italy in time for Mikel Arteta to hold a press conference at 7:15pm on Tuesday, but Arsenal didn’t make it to the country until over two hours later. The event had to be cancelled.
Though managers are required to speak to the media before European fixtures, Matt Verri reports for The Standard that Arsenal won’t face any punishment in this case, due to the factors beyond their control.
The travel disruption has continued on into Wednesday, with Cirium (via the BBC) reporting that 291 flights have been cancelled so far. So there will be further difficulties for any fans hoping to travel on the day of the game, or reorganising their travel from Tuesday to Wednesday.
In all, Arsenal are likely to have a reduced presence in the away end, with tickets also coming off sale before the entire allocation was sold. The short time turnaround from the draw and a communication error with supporters were both factors in that outcome.
Many fans were mistakenly told that tickets would remain on sale for one day longer than they did.
As a result, some people who were still sorting their travel arrangements before buying match tickets ended up unable to purchase one.
Arsenal will have to overcome a larger-than-usual deficit in support on Wednesday night, but the fans who did make it will just have to make up for the absentees.
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