English fans should be BANNED from travelling to the Champions League final in Istanbul, insists MP

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Fury has erupted over plans for up to 8,000 English football fans to get tickets to the Champions League final in Turkey this month as UEFA will try to host the match in front of a stadium of thousands despite the country’s Covid outbreak.

Manchester City and Chelsea will receive up to 4,000 tickets each for fans to attend the match in Turkey, if the proposals are given the go ahead. 

Football chiefs and Turkish authorities are believed to be drawing up plans to accommodate 25,000 spectators at the Ataturk Stadium for the match on May 29. If they are approved, the stadium in Istanbul will host a third of its 76,000-capacity. 

But staging the game will make a ‘mockery’ of Britain’s efforts to stamp out Covid, according to an MP and public health experts, who say English fans shouldn’t be allowed to attend.

Turkey – currently in a lockdown set to end on May 17 – has a Covid infection rate 12 times higher than Britain’s, with 370 new cases per million people announced yesterday, compared to just 30 in the UK. There were 31,200 more positive tests confirmed on Tuesday, alongside just 2,000 in the UK.

Clive Efford, Labour MP for Eltham in Greenwich, South East London, said letting English fans travel to Turkey ‘is a risk not worth taking at this stage’.

Kevin Brennan, Labour MP for Cardiff West, told MailOnline prior to Chelsea reaching the final that if the Blues made it through, the match should be moved to Britain. He said: ‘I know it would be a blow for Istanbul but… it would certainly be safer from a Covid point of view.’

City eased their way to their first Champions League final with a stunning 2-0 win over Paris Saint-Germain at the Etihad Stadium, on Tuesday night, to go with their 2-1 win in France. Chelsea drew 1-1 with Real Madrid in the first leg in Spain and sealed a 2-0 victory at Stamford Bridge tonight.

It is currently still illegal for Brits to travel abroad for non-essential reasons but this is expected to change on May 17, when the Foreign Office is likely to allow people to fly to countries with low Covid infection rates. 

Turkey has a slim chance of being on the green list, however, because it’s currently one of the worst-hit countries in Europe and has a slow vaccine rollout. This would mean fans must self-isolate for 10 days after returning to the UK.

Within hours of the City match finishing last night, the club asked supporters to express their interest if they wanted to attend the final at the Ataturk Stadium, with The Times reporting 4,000 would be offered tickets.

Sources have told the paper the clubs may be permitted to sell even more tickets than their allocation if they organise the travel via official packages. 

However, the final arrangements will be influenced by the UK government’s travel restrictions, expected to be announced on Friday, which will determine whether fans would have to quarantine on their return. 

Turkey is currently in a ‘full lockdown’ until May 17. It has suffered a devastating spike of coronavirus, with a peak of 60,000 cases and 300 deaths a day in April and rates of infection remain thirteen times higher than the UK.

In addition, scientists say that Turkish scientists have a limited capacity to analyse the virus so there is not much reliable information about variants that may be circulating there.

The Kent, South Africa and Brazilian variants – those most concerning scientists – are all known to be spreading there but it is not clear which strain is dominant, nor whether there are others that might be worrying.

British Prime Minister and Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the discovery of a new variant that can escape vaccine immunity is the number one threat to getting life back to normal in the UK, and the government is desperate to avoid it happening. Strict travel curbs are likely to stay in place for months in order to achieve this. 

Vaccine mister Nadhim Zahawi refused to be drawn on the prospect of English fans travelling to Turkey for the match when questioned on BBC Breakfast today.

But Clive Efford, MP for Eltham, said: ‘To allow English fans to travel to and from Turkey would make a mockery of all the measures we have taken over recent months during lockdown.’

‘It is a risk not worth taking at this stage, particularly because we are concerned about new variants emerging and whether vaccines are effective against them,’ added, Efford, who is a qualified FA coach and life-long Millwall fan. 

‘And if it is two English clubs in the final it makes sense to move it from Istanbul.’  

Labour MP Kevin Brennan, a member of Parliament’s Culture Committee, told MailOnline that UEFA should ‘urgently’ look again at moving the final to England.

‘If it were to be between Chelsea and Manchester City it would make eminent sense to move it to Wembley or another suitable location in the UK,’ he said.

‘I know it would be a blow for Istanbul but surely a future final could be arranged to compensate. They could possibly have a greater capacity for the fans, and it would certainly be safer from a Covid point of view.’

He added: ‘It doesn’t make a lot of sense to proceed in Istanbul when it would be a lot safer [in the UK].’ 

Turkish President, Tayyip Erdogan, ordered a full lockdown of the country on Thursday last week, which will last until May 17, in an attempt to drive the level of infection down, with schools closed and travel restricted.

But there is still an exemption for international tourists as the country tries to hold on to a crucial source of revenue.   

Turkey will be desperate to stage the game with fans to show the world that it is open for business after coronavirus wrecked the tourist season last summer.

Professor Keith Neal, an expert in public health at the University of Nottingham, previously told Sportsmail that hosting the match in Istanbul would be ‘crazy and unnecessary’.

‘Turkey is a Covid hot zone and it is likely to remain so in May,’ he said.

‘People will be travelling in crowded planes, passing through crowded airports and spending time in bars and restaurants. It is too risky. 

‘I would move the game. Move it to England where you can manage it better. You could move it to England for the two English teams.’  

Turkish politicians in the country fear European destinations will steal away customers as beaches, bars and restaurants reopen.

The foreign cash that tourists spend is critical to offset Turkey’s heavy foreign debt, but revenues plunged 65 per cent last year when the pandemic first hit, according to Reuters.

Turkey is hoping to host 30million foreigners this year, twice as many as last, if the lockdown succeeds in lowering daily Covid cases to below 5,000 from near 30,000 in recent days.  

While sympathetic to Turkey’s situation, Mr Efford said it shouldn’t influence decision-making.

‘The decision should be based on what is safe and in everyone’s interests,’ added the Labour politician. 

‘[Turkey’s situation] cannot be a factor. It is the risk we have to consider.

‘There should be no travelling fans from the UK. It is a tragedy, but that is the situation we are in.

‘It absolutely makes sense that if it is not going to be the huge spectacle it has always been then it should be played out at Wembley and Istanbul should be offered the final at a later date.’

Last year’s final was also scheduled for the Ataturk Stadium, before the latter stages of the blue riband competition were moved to Spain, where it was played in front of empty stands.

Liberal Democrat Layla Moran MP, chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Coronavirus said it would be ‘dangerous’ for fans to travel to Turkey now.

‘In light of the very high number of cases in Turkey, it would be dangerous to encourage fans to travel there to attend the Champions League final,’ she said.

‘In the current climate, where it is possible, games should be hosted in teams’ home nations. It is reckless for players and fans to have to travel abroad unnecessarily.

‘International journeys increase the risk of new Covid-19 variants being imported, which is why the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Coronavirus has this week released a report discouraging all non-essential overseas travel.’ 

Professor Paul Hunter, an infectious disease expert at the University of Norwich also told Sportsmail the risks of playing in Istanbul were too high.

‘So, from a global perspective holding big international events where people will probably not adhere to the guidance because they are overseas and there will probably be a lot of alcohol around does not seem a good idea,’ he said.

‘For me, I would not consider it a worthwhile risk. Even though cases are dropping it is still going to be pretty high. There is no way Turkey is going to get it down to anywhere near the UK by then.’

Turkey’s lockdown is due to end on May 17, which is also the earliest date that UK residents will be allowed to travel abroad, under the government’s roadmap out of lockdown.

Currently all overseas holidays are banned for UK residents.

However, government ministers have spoken positively about travel restrictions being eased in May with the development of the NHS app, which would act as a Covid passport to demonstrate a person has been vaccinated against the virus, or has received a negative test.

When asked on BBC Breakfast today about travel to Istanbul to watch Manchester City and Chelsea, before they progressed, the government’s vaccine minister, Nadhim Zahawi, would not be drawn.

‘Later this week the Transport Secretary [Grant Shapps] will be stating what he has already announced which is the traffic light system,’ he said. ‘We have 40 countries on the red list… There will be the amber list and green list. Grant Shapps will be setting this out later this week.’

Under the plans, countries will be designated a colour, red, amber, or green, which will determine the quarantine requirements on the return to the UK.

‘Red countries’ would require returning travellers to quarantine in a government-approved hotel, while an amber rating would mean people have to self-isolate at home for 10 days.

Dr Julian Tang, a virologist and Honorary Associate Professor in the Department of Respiratory Sciences at the University of Leicester, told Sportsmail there were risks associated with the match, which were heightened by the fact that Turkey does not extensively sequence the virus, so the number and type of variants in the country is not known.

Added to that he said 80 per cent of people do not self-isolate properly, when they return to the UK, which creates the risk of spreading the disease.

However, he said football fans will make up a small part of the total travel taking place to and from the UK after May 17.

‘The bigger picture is that the UK is going to open up to foreign travel by the end of this month. If you are going to open up, you are going to have to deal with these things.’

Flights are currently operating between the UK and Turkey. All passengers aged six years and above are required to show a negative PCR test taken within 72 hours before departure. And there is currently no requirement to self-isolate once in Turkey.

Last month, UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin removed restrictions on attendance at matches and this month travel bans on fans were also lifted, with host countries left to decide on safe limits.

UEFA told The Athletic last week that the Turkish lockdown would not affect the final.

‘The Champions League final will take place in Istanbul on May 29 with a limited number of spectators and we are assured that the temporary lockdown which is in force until May 17 should not have any impact on the match.

‘UEFA will continue to work closely with the Turkish Football Federation and the local and national authorities to stage the match safely.’