SURPRISE package Brest will keep playing Champions League home games 70 miles away – despite winning permission to build a jaw-dropping new stadium.
The French club are a stunning seventh out of 36 teams in the group phase of Europe’s top event – having never before qualified for ANY continental tournament.
But Brest’s 15,000-capacity stadium falls short of Uefa requirements.
So they’ve been taking on European giants at Guingamp’s Stade de Roudourou, which holds 18,400 fans.
Unsurprisingly, there’s huge demand for tickets in such an historic season.
So Brest enquired with Stade de France chiefs about using the famous 80,000-capacity venue.
But that come to nothing – and now the club say they will stay at Guingamp for the rest of their European adventure.
Last month, however, Brest won the go-ahead for a new site called Arkea Park with futuristic sloping stands.
The only drawback is it will still be limited to hosting no more than the 15,000 figure that their current Stade Francis-Le Ble can take.
The club even had to get special permission from Ligue 1 to play French top-flight football at their home venue.
And Brest worked out that building Arkea Park would be cheaper than getting Stade Francis-Le Ble up to scratch.
They’d also have to cut capacity by between 25% to 40% whilst renovating their home – meaning 3,500-6,000 fewer fans would fit inside,
It would also have forced “demolition of private homes and one or two buildings of the Charles de Foucauld School” next to Stade Francis-Le Ble.
In contrast, Brest believe the alternative of Arkea Park will give them the potential to host far more than just 17 Ligue 1 matches a season.
They plan to make it suitable for a wide range of events all year round.
In the meantime, Brest await the Champions League visit of Real Madrid on January 29… at Guingamp – 114 kilometres (70m) from their normal home.
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