Atlético Madrid have officially lodged a complaint with UEFA after their dressing room at Arsenal's Emirates Stadium had no hot water supply during training yesterday. Approximately 40 minutes after Atlético reported the lack of hot water to the relevant parties, Arsenal restored the hot water supply. Atlético had originally planned to end training at 19:30, but actually finished 15 minutes early before taking a bus back to the hotel.
Diego Simeone's team was left confused and angry that a world-class venue like the Emirates Stadium could lack such basic facilities, hence the official complaint to UEFA.
However, the incident is highly unlikely to have been deliberately planned by Arsenal, and the club is unlikely to face any official punishment.
This is because although UEFA requires stadiums to provide hot water in dressing rooms as part of infrastructure standards, this requirement only applies during matches, not pre-match training sessions.
Camel Live outlined the timeline of the incident, presented in the table below:
| Time | Event |
|---|---|
| 18:45 | Shortly after training began, Atlético officials reported to Arsenal that there was no hot water supply in the dressing room. |
| 19:15 | Atlético had planned to end training at 19:30, but players returned to the dressing room 15 minutes early and found the hot water issue unresolved. |
| 19:25 | Hot water supply at the Emirates Stadium was restored. However, Atlético's entire squad had already decided to return to the hotel by bus by then. |
After the incident, Arsenal quickly apologized to Atlético, emphasizing that such an incident had never happened before.
