Chelsea Ticket Office Reopens As Club Gives Update Ahead Of Real Madrid Fixtures

Chelsea will start selling tickets again on Wednesday for the first time since the club's owner was sanctioned by the UK government.

The club had been issued with a special license 19 days earlier when the government froze the assets of Roman Abramovich due to his alleged links to Vladimir Putin.

One of the original conditions had been that Chelsea could not sell tickets.

This was designed to ensure that Abramovich, who is trying to sell the club, could not financially benefit from his asset.

But the terms of Chelsea's license were amended last week to allow the sale of tickets for their upcoming Champions League quarter-final with Real Madrid and the FA Cup semi-final against Crystal Palace.

Tickets for the home leg against Real will go on sale from 10am UK time on Wednesday.

They will be offered first to season-ticket holders, who are also the only fans who are able to attend Chelsea's remaining home games in the Premier League this season.

Chelsea's ticket office is set to reopen after being closed by government restrictions

IMAGO/ZUMA/Vuk Valcic

Although Chelsea are now permitted to sell tickets to away fans for all games, and to Chelsea fans for games not held at Stamford Bridge, they are only permitted to sell home tickets for non-Premier League matches.

It is understood that Chelsea have around 28,000 season-ticket holders, while away teams often bring 3,000 fans to Stamford Bridge.

The capacity at Stamford Bridge is just under 42,000, so there is likely to be at least 10,000 empty seats at Chelsea's final few home games in this season's EPL.

But Stamford Bridge is expected to be full for the first leg of Chelsea's Champions League quarter-final against Real Madrid on April 6.

However, the return leg in Madrid will be played with a reduced capacity as the Bernabeu is currently undergoing renovation works.

A ticketing update published on ChelseaFC.com explained: "We are expecting to receive 1,800 tickets which will be sold on a loyalty point basis.

"This allocation is reduced due to security reasons while the stadium is redeveloped.

"There will be no ticket collection point in Madrid. Tickets will likely need to be collected from Stamford Bridge, full details will follow in due course."