Brighton’s European adventure begins with costly flights, no TV coverage and goalless draw

Brighton & Hove Albion fans faced a stark choice if they wanted to watch their team’s goalless Conference League tie against Norwegian hosts Tromso, a club based inside the Arctic Circle.

They could join owner-chairman Tony Bloom in paying through the nose for a direct flight to Thursday’s first leg in the play-off round, or pay £12 to stream a match not televised in the UK.

Just over 400 seats were available to away supporters at Tromso’s tightly packed Romssa Arena, which has a capacity of under 6,700. Travelling fans with priority under Brighton’s points scheme for away games were confronted by a complicated journey to a destination not on a direct flight route from the UK in summertime, that was until EasyJet stepped in to demonstrate the commercial benefits of football for a savvy airline with flexibility to react to demand.

The UK’s largest airline by passenger numbers — renowned for low-cost flights and holidays across Europe and its orange branding — normally runs services from Gatwick Airport to Tromso from November to March.

By August 8, some fans spotted that EasyJet had added a flight arriving mid-afternoon on the day of the match, returning to the UK on Friday evening and posted the details on social media. A sudden opportunity to make the journey more straightforward happened too late for some supporters who had already booked flights connecting internally to Tromso via Oslo.

The price was prohibitive. On August 8, the cost of a return ticket with EasyJet ranged from £450 to £600, depending on priority boarding, luggage and seating choices. That is much higher than normal — for example, prices for a return flight on the same route from November 16 to 20 start from £122.

The kick-off time was unknown at that stage. By August 16, it had been confirmed as 6pm in the UK (7pm Norway). The departure of the flight, lasting 3hrs 40 mins, moved forward by nearly an hour, from 10.05am to 9.10am. A scheduled arrival in Tromso of 1.50pm — it actually landed 17 minutes early — gave Bloom and fans plenty of time for a journey of less than three miles by road to the stadium. By then, however, the return cost of the flight had risen further, to between £600 and £800. EasyJet were unavailable for comment when contacted by The Athletic.

Brighton season-ticket holder George Taylor, who was on the flight, said: “The flight was full and they were all Brighton fans as far as I could tell — including Tony Bloom. I was at the other end of the plane, but I saw him having photos taken. I booked on Friday night and paid £420, including hotel, as a package through the EasyJet website. Flights hit a high of £600 with no hotel on Saturday. I was not planning on going until I managed to get a (match) ticket. I did not have flights booked and would not have gone without a ticket.”

The club received emails from supporters before the tie was confirmed, asking if they would be able to organise a charter flight for fans to Tromso. That was not practical, due to a shortage of charter aircraft availability during the peak holiday season.

There was a bonus for those supporters who made the journey. The players paid for their match tickets and for scarves and T-shirts placed on their seats as a thank you for their loyalty in travelling at such short notice. Tromso were not officially confirmed as the opponents until August 13, a week before the tie, although a 5-0 win away to Romanian side Cluj made the home leg on that date (which they won 2-1) a formality.

Those sitting at home were left disappointed — and out of pocket — by no TV coverage in the UK. TNT Sports are the rights holders for the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League, but the package does not include the qualifying or play-off rounds. Tromso, as the home team, had control of selling the rights. They made the game available to stream for £12 via Swedish platform SolidSport.

Brighton’s second European adventure is logistically more taxing for the club and fans alike than the first time around, when they reached the last 16 of the Europa League under former head coach Roberto De Zerbi in 2023-24. They went straight into group matches on that occasion from October to December after finishing sixth in the Premier League.

The draw was kind too then, on direct flight routes to major cities — Marseille, Amsterdam and Athens, then Rome in the knockout stages, which ended in a 4-1 defeat to Roma on aggregate. The European campaign has started early this time with the tie over two legs against Tromso to qualify for the group phase after Fabian Hurzeler’s side finished eighth in the league last season.

The early kick-off slot against Tromso  — kick-off times range from 5pm to 8pm in the play-off round — was helpful, but Hurzeler’s squad were still not due to return to Gatwick on their charter flight until the early hours of Friday morning, eating further into preparation time for Sunday’s opening Premier League fixture at home to Aston Villa.

Was it all worthwhile for the fans that made the trek to Tromso? They should have been rewarded with a comfortable win, but Hurzeler’s side missed a hatful of chances as Jakob Haugaard — who was in goal for Wigan when a 2-1 home win in 2017 sealed Brighton’s promotion to the Premier League — made a string of saves.

Brighton could have been punished in the second half, when Tromso players were twice clean through. Bart Verbruggen spread himself to foil Heine Larsen and a centre-back’s finish late on by Isak Vadebu, skewed wide of the target, sparing the visitors from a surprise defeat to diligent but limited opponents.

Brighton should get the job done comfortably in the second leg at the Amex Stadium next Thursday. If they do, that will lead to more geographic adventures — and a further hit to fans’ bank balances  — as they travel to outposts in Europe in the group phase of the competition, with three out of six matches away from home.