Manchester United fans will face a series of inconveniences tomorrow afternoon and evening before the Europa League first leg match against Olympique Lyonnais.
The first match will take place at the Groupama Stadium before the return leg is played at Old Trafford the following Thursday.
As always, United will take a significant hoard of fans with them on their European adventure.
While the Europa League can often throw up some arduous treks to Eastern Europe, the 1,279 km between Manchester and Lyon is hardly much of an issue.
Nonetheless, The Daily Mail have reported that this trip will be far from straightforward for United fans.
The paper reports that, “local authorities in France have put in place a number of restrictions on away fans that will make matchday a rather convoluted exercise before a ball has even been kicked.”
“Every travelling fan has been mandated to collect a stadium wristband from the Eurexpo Conference Centre – around 10km away from Lyon’s Groupama Stadium – between 5pm and kick-off on the day of the game.”
The supporters travelling to the stadium will only be allowed access to the away end if they arrive via the “designated Shuttle 1 Stadium buses” that depart from the Eurexpo.
Fans are not too pleased as many would have planned to enjoy the city centre in the hours before the match.
The club responded that, “we appreciate and apologise for the significant inconvenience this will cause to some of your plans. Please be assured that the club has fought hard to reduce the impact on travelling fans, which originally involved two collection points situated across the city centre.”
Lyon also forced similar protocol on travelling Frankfurt and Bucharest supporters before previous Europa League contests this season.
One final slap in the face for United fans is that they will have to wait around 60 minutes before they leave the stadium to be transported back to the Eurexpo.
This is not the first time away fans will have had to deal with inconveniences as last season in Turkiye, they had to put up with UEFA’s incompetence and a series of delays as they entered and left RAMS Park in November 2023.
Featured image Catherin Steenkeste via Getty Images
Follow us on Bluesky: @peoplesperson.bsky.social
Alex Browne
Alex is a huge Manchester United fan, inspired by greats of his homeland such as George Best, Harry Gregg and Norman Whiteside. Proud owner of such niche shirts such as Kleberson, Eric Djemba-Djemba and Gary Neville. Grew up pretending to be Ruud van Nistelrooy and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in the back garden, with little success.
