An extra 2,000 tickets will be available to supporters of Brentford and Swansea City for Saturday’s Sky Bet Championship Play-Off Final as part of an NHS trial.
The extra allocation takes the limited capacity for Saturday’s showpiece final to 12,000, with 10,000 tickets distributed directly to Clubs. Club ticket allocations for this weekend’s Finals are proportionately greater than pre-COVID finals with almost 85% now allocated for Clubs to sell in the Championship Final and 80% capacity in League One and Two Finals.
The remaining allocation is split between Club Wembley, event organisers and sponsors. In line with contractual arrangements, EFL sponsors and partners - who have all remained steadfast in their support throughout the pandemic - will receive approximately 5% of the allocation, with any unused tickets being passed to Clubs.
The EFL lobbied hard to ensure the Play-Off Semi-Finals all had fans in attendance and had requested the Finals to be part of the Government’s Event Research Programme (ERP). Ultimately this did not prove possible, so in line with Step 3 Government guidance the Finals will be restricted to 10,000 for League One and Two, and 12,000 for the Championship, with the latter as part of the NHS App trial.
1,000 additional tickets per club will be made available to supporters of Brentford and Swansea City exclusively, with further details on how to apply for tickets available via each Club’s respective websites.
An EFL spokesperson said:
“Having moved our Play-Off schedule to align with the Government’s move to Step 3 protocols and enable fans to attend, we look forward to welcoming supporters back to Wembley at the eagerly anticipated Sky Bet EFL Play-Off Finals, after a season behind closed doors.
“While the small increase in the Championship Final is welcome, we would of course have preferred to admit fans in much greater numbers, but like other public events are subject to the Government’s Step 3 guidance.
“Unfortunately, the Play-Offs were not selected to operate as a pilot event as part of the Government’s Events Research Programme - despite a request from the EFL on behalf of the Clubs involved and their supporters – which meant that achieving significantly greater capacities at all three Finals was not possible.
“The EFL shares the disappointment of the Clubs and their supporters that many fans will be absent but we will continue to liaise with the Government in the coming weeks as we pursue our aspiration of a return to full stadia for the start of next season.”