Prague set for West Ham/Fiorentina UCL showdown

Thousands of football fans are descending on Prague to witness the UEFA Europa Conference League final between West Ham and Fiorentina, scheduled to take place in the city’s Eden Arena on Wednesday evening.

The Europa Conference league is the smallest and we could say least important of the three European competitions, but I think it is getting more and more prestigious and having this final taking place in Prague is a significant success for Czech football.

“And of course with the English and Italian sides featuring in the final I think the event’s importance is big, especially for Czech fans. We have two Czech internationals playing for West Ham and one Czech international for Fiorentina, so from the Czech fans’ perspective it is absolutely massive.”

“Having read the details about the preparations I think both UEFA and the Czech Football Association as well as the Czech police have done a really good job in trying to prevent clashes from taking place.

“Of course you can never reduce the danger to absolute zero, but I think right from the beginning, the authorities want to make sure that both fans’ camps will not meet in person, having chosen different routes to downtown Prague and to the stadium.

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“But I think the most important measure is that there is not going to be a fan zone for non-ticket holders close to the stadium, so non-ticket holders will be discouraged from getting close to the stadium. Actually, the authorities will organize quite a huge circle around the stadium letting in only ticket holders.”