The Champions League group stages started last week, with the final being played in 30th May 2020 in Ataturk Olympic Stadium, in Istanbul, Turkey. But, already this week, during a conference in Ljubljana, Slovenia, UEFA officially declared where will be the final matches for the following three editions.
The 2020/21 edition will happen on the 29th May of 2021 in Saint-Petersburg. Krestovsky Stadium, also known as Gazprom Arena, was opened in 2017, planned for the World Cup 2018. The stadium held matches of the Confederations Cup and World Cup and right now it is where Zenit St. Petersburg plays their home games. The stadium had a maximum capacity of 64,468 during the 2018 WC.
Meanwhile, the following edition, 2021/22, will have its final happening in Munich, in Allianz Arena. The date is still unsure, although if you want to book it your calendar you can bet it will happen towards the end of May 2022. Allianz Arena, the home stadium of Bayern Munich, already held one Champions League final, in 2012, curiously when Bayern lost to Chelsea and the ‘Blues’ won their first title. The stadium has a capacity of 70,000.
Finally, the Champions League final of the 2022/23 edition will be back to England. Wembley, the national stadium of the ‘Three Lions’, that holds the FA Cup final every year, will have it’s 3rd Champions League final, after 2011 and 2013. Located in London, the renewed Wembley stadium opened in 2007 and it can have until 87,000 people inside, being one of the biggest stadiums in the world.
Sevilla to host Europa League final
Along with the announcement for the Champions League final venues, UEFA announced where the Europa League finals will happen in 2021 and 2022.
After failing to be elected to host the final of this year, losing their bid to Baku, Sevilla won the right to host the UEL final in 2020. This is the first European final held at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan stadium, home of Sevilla FC, although in 2003 Celtic and Porto faced in the city. The final of the, at the time called UEFA Cup, was played in the Estadio Olimpico de Sevilla.
Meanwhile, the UEFA SuperCup 2021 will be held in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Remember that Europa League final 2020 will happen on 27th of May, in Gdansk, Poland. The UEFA SuperCup 2020 is scheduled to happen on August 2020 in FC Porto home ground, Estadio do Dragao.
A new competition: UEFA Conference League
In their meeting in Slovenia, UEFA also announced the name of their third club competition: UEFA Conference League. The competition will be held starting from the 2021/22 season and it will have a similar structure as the other two in existence: a group stage, with 32 teams.
The objective, according to the UEFA committee, is to give smaller teams a stage to play at international level. However, with this competition, the Europa League that now holds 48 teams during its group stages, will be reduced to 32.
The competition will have three qualifying rounds and a playoff. It will receive teams that drop out from the Champions League second round (8). And other 8 that will drop from Europa League playoffs.
It is still unsure how UEFA will manage this competition and how they will solve the SuperCup issue. Will the UEFA Conference League winners be able to play UEFA SuperCup, with the winners of the two other competitions?
Be the first to comment