I travelled to Pesaro for the 2026 UEFA Futsal Champions League final four expecting club futsal’s showpiece weekend to feel like a celebration. Instead, it left me asking the same question I keep coming back to after these events: when will UEFA start treating futsal like the elite product it claims it is?

The Final in Brief

For those who want the headline from Sunday 10 May: Sporting CP beat Illes Balears Palma 2–0 to win a third UEFA Futsal Champions League title and end Palma’s run of three consecutive crowns. Diogo Santos opened the scoring early before seeing red after a poor tackle; Ivan Chishkala added a second late as Palma chased the game with a flying goalkeeper.

Where UEFA Fell Short

Ticketing

One of my main frustrations with the event was the lack of communication from UEFA, especially with regards to ticket sales and pricing. I know for a fact I wasn't the only individual who was travelling from a different country to attend the event and was left in the dark about the ticket sales and pricing.

It was purely by chance that I noticed the post on the Serie A Futsal Instagram page which also differed from the previous year when UEFA had bothered to announce the sales via Facebook.

My second issue was the strategy used by UEFA to sell these tickets which was to offer a multi day pass which means individuals could buy tickets for multiple days and if we're being realistic the fans of the teams that don't make the final from the semi-final definitely have less incentive to attend the final.

Access

Moving onto the event itself terms of access to the arena, I really would like to know the rationale behind denying people entry to the arena because they appear to have a portable charger beyond a suitable size. Surely people want to charge their phones and share the experience via social media. The decision to restrict such devices was short sighted in my mind, and if there was enough of a security concern then proper scanners should have been made available.

Sales

While spectating the third place match and the final itself I couldn’t help but notice how many empty and even unused rows of seating there were. This further baited my rage when the announcers had the gall to mention that this was a sell out event. I could see countless empty seats and on the lower level there were almost two sides that had not even been used when they could have been.

The scoreboard put the official attendance at 5,816 — yet the Vitrifrigo Arena typically holds around 10,300. That is well under half capacity for club futsal’s showpiece final, and it matched what was visible from the stands.

Poland showed us how much Futsal means earlier in the competition by breaking the non-final attendance record with a crowd of over 10,000 which to me signals that independent organisers are capable of running events at a higher level than UEFA.

Pricing

Pricing is an area I whole heartedly had few issues with, the price for tickets was entirely reasonable, the cost of food and drinks was also reasonable. Heck, it's the first time in my life I've been able to sip on a beer and enjoy professional futsal. More food options would definitely have been appreciated - given Italy rich culinary ability the options were very disappointing when I’ve seen other sporting events deliver to customers.

Venue

From one’s seat you did get a good view of the spectacle, I was sat on the upper tier in one of the corners so definitely not in a prime seat.

As the rain intensified I found myself dodging a leak in the stadium which meant an area had to be cordoned off. I was left with the feeling that UEFA had acquired this venue for a very cheap price.

This was again reinforced when the toilet situation was put to customers, the toilets were in no way appropriate for an event of this magnitude, queues ruined the experience as the toilet that catered for hundreds of people on the upper tier (which I was on) only had two cubicles which were in a really dire state. A great deal of TLC could help this venue internally.

You can explore full venue details, photos, as well as leave your own review of the Vitrifrigo Arena here:

Venue on The Futsal Directory

Vitrifrigo Arena

Via Y. A. Gagarin, Pesaro, Italy

1 Court Court

Parking · Café · Spectator Seating · Wheelchair Access · Changing Rooms · Showers · Toilets

View venue →

We captured more from the weekend over on TikTok — watch the full clip here:

https://www.tiktok.com/@thefutsaldirectory/video/7638622644320947469

Moving Forward

I’m not a fan of pointing fingers without producing solutions, so moving forward I advocate that UEFA centralise ticket communication such that fans all over the continent can stay informed with the distribution process. Also there is a great deal of demand for tickets so UEFA should not undersell these coveted futsal events - there was a great deal of opportunity to have a near sell out atmosphere or even fully utilised arena. If UEFA isn’t confident then they should step aside and let those who have the ability do so as shown in Poland.