After forgetting it was lapsed, I renewed my passport about 6 weeks before the champions league final in anticipation for a potential trip to Paris, they said an average of 5 weeks and upto 10 weeks, I then read about all these issues and had almost resigned myself to missing out. I got my new passport in my hand in less than 3 weeks from application and that even included a long bank holiday where I couldn't post my old passport off to start the process. Came before we even blew our place in the final.