Aston Villa’s Super Cup clash with Paris St-Germain has been overshadowed by a peculiar row after the French champions complained to Uefa about the facilities.
PSG insisted their dressing room at the Red Bull Arena was too small and Uefa moved to ease the tension by offering them an extra room.
The stadium belongs to Red Bull Salzburg and Unai Emery’s Villa are understood to be using the home dressing room, which irked Luis Enrique and senior PSG officials.
PSG aired their frustrations in a pre-match meeting with Uefa on Monday, also insisting they should have equal-sized space to their Premier League opponents.
Uefa opted to grant PSG’s demands and allowed them to use a separate room usually reserved for officials.
The Super Cup pitches the Champions League winners (PSG) against the Europa League winners (Villa).
Villa are facing PSG for the first time since the Champions League quarter-final in April 2025. Villa shocked the eventual winners by beating them in the second leg but exited the competition on aggregate.
Emery will be without key players Ezri Konsa, Ollie Watkins and Emiliano Martínez for the continental showpiece after the trio were granted extra leave following their participation in the latter stages of the World Cup.
Konsa’s future is uncertain, with Premier League champions Arsenal identifying the centre-back as a priority target.
Martínez, the Argentina goalkeeper, had been trailed by Juventus but is expected to stay and Watkins has also been linked with a move away.
Emery said: “They are not here because they finished the season on July 19 and I gave them four weeks to rest and it is completely necessary.
“Of course, if they were here, maybe we will have many more chances, but at the same time, I think PSG will be in the same situation as us.
“We will prepare the game with players, even some young players, like we started with four weeks ago. Of course they are favourites.”