Tony Bloom makes 'surreal' admission over Brighton's Europa League experience

After a slow start, Brighton settled down in the Europa League with back-to-back wins over Ajax and a victory at AEK Athens confirming their place in the knock-out rounds.

The Seagulls can top Group B if they beat Marseille on Thursday night (December 14).

Speaking ahead of the game, the club’s owner and chairman Tony Bloom said: “It's a great personal feeling playing in Europe for the first time.

"It's great for all of our fans and everyone at the club. All of our players, staff.

"Now we've had it once, we want to keep going.

"It's not easy to qualify. It's far and away the most difficult league to qualify for Europe from. The competition is so fierce.”

Bloom said playing in an elite European competition has been ‘an unbelievable experience’ so far.

He added: "It's been a really difficult first half of the season with European extra games and amount of injuries.

"We love all the European games. We know Thursday to Sunday is difficult but if we have it again next season, we will be a bit more used to it.

"It will be a little bit easier, particularly if the injury list is [not as bad] in future seasons.

"I am delighted to be eighth in the table and in the knockout stages. Hopefully we will beat Marseille which will give us that bye. The team has done very well in very difficult circumstances.”

Bloom said Brighton are ‘learning all the time’ and admitted that the away trips have taken their toll.

"Athens was most difficult, coming back so late on Friday morning,” he said.

"Then having to play a team as good as Chelsea away. Particularly as they were rested. It's normally the reverse – we've normally got that advantage.

"It was a bit surreal. We played very well against Chelsea. It’s disappointing to get nothing from that game.

“We are really going to look forward to the second half of the season and in Europe.”

Bloom said he enjoyed meeting fans whilst he enjoyed some down-time in Greece.

"The fans are great,” he said. “I'm a fan, my family are all fans.”

"It was my first time in Athens, enjoying the sights. It was great to be there and seeing fans around town was superb.

"The support we've had away from home in Europe has been tremendous. It's only going to get bigger and more vociferous, the further we go in the tournament. We certainly enjoyed the celebrations after the Athens game.”

Bloom was speaking to the media during a private screening of the long-awaited documentary ‘Stand or Fall: The Remarkable Rise of Brighton & Hove Albion’.

When asked if he was surprised by how far Brighton have come, Bloom said: “I'm an optimistic person so when I committed to building the Amex. First class training facilities, getting category one academy status, I wasn't doing that not expecting success.

"The vision at that point was to get out of League One after a bad season but the long term ambition was to get to the Premier League.

"That was it. When we were there, we had to do everything we could to stay there.

"We've pushed on. We had the vision of being top ten in the men's league and top four in the women’s.

"The last couple of seasons we've achieved and we plan to be there on a very regular basis.

"Last season we qualified for Europe so we are on an upward trajectory but it's very difficult. We have to keep working really hard because the competition is fierce. Everyone below us in the table is looking to overtake us.”