West Ham are set for their first European final in 47 years as they take on Fiorentina this evening in the Europa Conference League final, but there won’t be many fans in the stadium.

The Hammers have been given just over 5,000 match tickets for the game in Prague, which, given they regularly get 60,000 at home, seems ridiculous.

The situation has drawn widespread criticism and will lead to thousands of ticketless Irons supporters flocking to the Czech Republic.

And you can bet they will enjoy themselves, but it’s still a shame to see that so few West Ham fans will be able to be at the final, which is live on talkSPORT.

Why do West Ham have so few tickets for the final?

The Europa Conference League final is set to take place on Wednesday, June 7 at the Eden Arena in Prague.

The stadium only holds 19,370 people, meaning each club have been given 5,870 tickets.

To put this into context, the Hammers had 55,000 season ticket holders for the Premier League this year, while Fiorentina‘s ground holds 43,000 people, so both clubs have been sold short.

UEFA have kept 4,300 tickets for sponsors and the rest have been reserved for the general public, so more Irons fans could be in that section but won’t be with their fellow supporters.

But this lack of seats is set to cause a potential security problem, with thousands of ticketless supporters finding any way possible to make it to Prague.

The Metropolitan Police have been tasked with attempting to help the authorities in Prague and to set up more locations in London for Irons supporters.

This situation has infuriated West Ham supporter and actor Ray Winstone.

Speaking to talkSPORT, he said: “I was supposed to go but it all went pear-shaped.

“It’s up in the air a little bit at the moment, whether I go or not is another thing, but I shall be watching it.

“The ridiculous outcome is it’s a 20,000 seater stadium for a final in Europe from two big countries in football – Italy and England.

“Ten thousand of those tickets would probably go to FIFA, and you think it is really about fans?

“I know probably 20,000 fans will go out there and be in one of the parks and have a great time.

“It never ceases to amaze me the decisions that people make. Who were they expecting in the final? Walsall against Stockport? There’d have been more fans there.”

Why haven’t UEFA done anything?

UEFA were told keeping this match at the Eden Arena could be a security risk.

However, Prague was selected as this year’s host city after a bidding process that began in July 2021 and concluded in May 2022.

And because of that, European football’s governing body decided to against changing the venue.

But next year’s Europa Conference League final will be held at a ground with a minimum 30,000 capacity.

In a statement released last month, UEFA said: “The bidding process to host the 2023 Europa Conference League final was launched in July 2021 and the decision to appoint Prague as the host for this season’s final was taken in May 2022.

“[This was] well before the beginning of the current club football season as the organisation of a club final requires long preparations and planning in order to have everything in place by the host association together with UEFA.

“At the time of the bidding process, no final of the new competition had been played. For the above reasons, a change of venue of this year’s final at such a late stage cannot be envisaged.”