Aberdeen to Almaty: Scottish club make longest Uefa journey

[BuryMeInEngland]

This is insane. It cost more to charter a plane than the match prize.

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/33714222

"You've only got two options if you're flying from Aberdeen to Almaty on Thursday: via London or Beijing.

Via London, it's 10 hours and it is July, so surely you can get the time off.

Why do it? The chance to witness football history as Aberdeen take onKazakhstan's Kairat Almaty in the Europa League third qualifying round first leg.

At 3,415 miles as the crow flies, it will be the longest distance travelled in a European club competition.

• Aberdeen's players are more used to coach journeys in the tens or hundreds of miles playing in the Scottish Premiership
• The club's longest away day trip last season was to Kilmarnock, at about 140 miles
• Aberdeen paid a reported £200,000 to charter a 44-seater plane to fly to Kazakhstan. The price of hire far exceeds the £100,000 match prize

What if you can't afford the £3,000 for flights or would prefer to drive? To make the 15:45 BST kick-off, you'll have needed to set off 87 hours beforehand - and that's only if you're not planning on sleeping.

Or maybe you don't fancy travelling so far? You could just as easily take a break in Sudan or nip to Toronto for the evening. You would be losing out on the air miles, though."

 

[LSUY]

Kazakhstan?! What the hell kind of map of Europe are UEFA using?

 

[penfold_99]

Kazakhstan?! What the hell kind of map of Europe are UEFA using?

They are probably using the same one as the Eurovision Song Contest

 

[yankspurs]

Wtf UEFA?!? Hey Platini, we know all you care about are dollar signs and are quite possibly more corrupt than Joseph but you could at least foot the bill for making aberdeen go to a country in Asia for a fucking European competition, solely because a small little tiny part of it is technically in Europe. Unbelievable.

 

[ERO]

Bigger part of the country is in Europe than is the case for Turkey. Yet one doesn't see the same reactions when teams has to go to play Fenerbache.

Kazakhstan are geographically eligible to be part of the Council of Europe. More than can be said about Israel, which again there's no outcry about.

 

[Lilbaz]

They didn't have to charter a whole plane. I'm sure if they bought individual tickets they wouldn't have cost £1k each. For 17 players, 3 coaches, 2 physios and the chairman they could have easily got there for under £30k.