UEFA fears over Rangers or Liverpool reaching Europa League Final sparks talks over using Croke Park as fanzone

UEFA are considering plans to hold a large scale fan zone for this season's Europa League final at Croke Park, with fears growing over host city Dublin's ability to deal with the huge amounts of fans expected.

The final will be played at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin on Wednesday, May 2022, with Rangers among the teams hoping to make it all the way to the showpiece event. Philippe Clement's side held Benfica to a 2-2 draw in Lisbon last week in the first leg of their last 16 clash and will hope to reach the quarters finals with a victory at Ibrox in the return fixture on Thursday night.

The likes of Liverpool, Bayer Leverkusen and Roma are all expected to go deep in the competition, with whoever makes the final likely to have no problems in selling out their allocation at the Aviva Stadium, which has a capacity of 52,000.

But according to the Independent, UEFA are now in talks with Irish authorities about using Croke Park, which has a larger capacity of 82,300, as a spill-off fan zone to help ease the burden on the numbers of fans who will be travelling to Dublin.

They say: "The 2024 showpiece is set to be held at the 52,000-capacity Aviva Stadium, and there is the possibility of a number of heavily-supported clubs appearing, above all Liverpool. West Ham and Rangers could also make a run at the final, although Brighton face a mountain to climb with a 4-0 deficit against Roma after the first leg in the last 16."

Demand for the final is already increasingly high, with hotels around the city already fully booked up. UEFA adopted a similar strategy on the day of the 2022 Europa League final between Rangers and Eintracht Frankfurt. Although the final took place at Sevilla's Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan Stadium, the nearby Estadio de