How the Basque club decided which Athletic Bilbao fans got tickets for Newcastle United match | OneFootball

Interesting to see how the La Liga club decided which Athletic Bilbao fans got tickets for the Champions League match against Newcastle United at St James’ Park.

This official announcement (see below) from the Basque club revealing the details.

Great to see the transparency as well that their club show to Athletic Bilbao fans, when it comes to detailing where match tickets actually go. Sadly, unlike what we witness with Newcastle United, who show minimal, if any, transparency.

In the Champions League, the rules dictate that away fans are entitled to at least 5% of the stadium capacity.

So with a capacity of just over 52,000 at St James’ Park, away fans entitled to at least 2,600 tickets when playing away against Newcastle United in the Champions League.

Newcastle United have to make at least 3,000 tickets available to away fans for Premier League matches and it is actually just over 3,200 tickets that are the maximum made available.

However, it appears that Newcastle do only give around the 5% (approx 2,600) minimum the rules dictate for Champions League games. The official NUFC ticketing site shows Athletic Bilbao fans have five blocks of seats in Level 7 for Wednesday night, whilst it is six blocks for Premier League games that are available to away fans.

There clearly was demand for far more Athletic Bilbao fans to get tickets and travel to Tyneside.

As detailed below by the club, they have the ticket allocation divided into a number of categories, the main one shows that 1,982 tickets for the Newcastle United match went into a pot that 4,086 members applied for, with then a draw to decide which 1,982 Athletic Bilbao fans got tickets from that pot and 2,104 unlucky.

Athletic Bilbao official announcement – 3 October 2025:

Check your Members’ Corner or email for the results of the ticket draw for the match at St. James’ Park stadium

Once the draw for available tickets for the match at St. James’ Park stadium was carried out, the winning number was 676. Therefore, that number and the following 1,981; that is, up to 2,657, will be entitled to purchase a ticket for said match.

The price of the tickets is €50.

4,086 members have signed up for the draw for this match.

Members who have been awarded a ticket at the end of the process must make the payment for the tickets* within the next 72 hours through the online payment gateway that has been sent to them by email and which they can also find in their Members’ Corner.

Before proceeding to payment, you must complete the required Travel Plan form (name, surname, date of birth, ID number, and travel plan of the individuals who will be using the tickets) for security purposes. Once payment is made, you will receive your tickets in PDF format via email within the following days. Ticket distribution will not begin until the purchase period for all groups (not just members) has ended.

* In the case of groups, the lead member will be the one who makes the payment for all the tickets (and who will receive them later).

Please note that any member who is awarded the right to obtain a ticket and does not collect and pay for it will be disqualified from registering for the next three draws held by the Club for the awarding of tickets for any competition.

Finally, if there are any unclaimed tickets, the Club will contact the following consecutive numbers, until stocks are exhausted.

Once the application period for tickets had ended, 178 eligible supporters had requested 222 tickets (bearing in mind that supporters who won tickets in the last three draws but did not collect them are ineligible to participate in this draw). Since 123 tickets were reserved for Club Athletic members, we held the draw, and the winning entry number was 13.

Check if your supporter code has been selected in the draw for the chance to buy one of the 123 tickets for the next match against Newcastle United.