KIEV: Istanbul’s Ataturk Olympic Stadium will host the Champions League final for a second time in 2020, UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin announced after an executive committee meeting on Thursday.
The 76,000-capacity stadium hosted the thrilling 2005 showpiece where Liverpool came back from 3-0 down at halftime to draw 3-3 with AC Milan and win a penalty shoot-out. The venue beat competition from Lisbon’s Estadio da Luz, where Real Madrid defeated Atletico Madrid 4-1 after extra-time in the 2014 final.
Ceferin also announced that the Gdansk Arena in Poland will host the 2020 Europa League final, while the Austria Arena was chosen as the venue for the 2020 Women’s Champions League final.
The 43,000-capacity Gdansk Arena was chosen ahead of FC Porto’s Estadio do Dragao, although the latter was named as the venue for the 2020 UEFA Super Cup final, played between the winners of the Champions League and the Europa League. Real Madrid meet Liverpool in Saturday’s Champions League final in Kiev, while Olympique Lyonnais were in action against VfL Wolfsburg later on Thursday in the women’s showpiece in the same city.
UEFA have been under pressure to ensure future final host cities have the hotel and airport infrastructure to cope with the influx of fans, delegates and media for the biggest game in club football.
Liverpool have complained to UEFA after their fans faced spiralling accommodation and travel costs for Saturday’s final in Kiev, the city which played host to the Euro 2012 final.
“They just don’t have the airport infrastructure and the hotel capacity to cope with an event of this size and there isn’t another major city within real hitting distance of it,” Liverpool chief executive Peter Moore told the Liverpool Echo newspaper. “It’s not only affected Liverpool fans but Real Madrid fans too. There will be lessons learned from this. Rest assured, I’ve raised this at the highest levels of UEFA.”
The UEFA president had already reintroduced a tender process for bidding for finals since taking over from Michel Platini. The decision to award the final to Kiev was made prior to Ceferin’s election as president in 2016.
Next season’s final will be held at the 67,000-capacity Wanda Metropolitano, home of Atletico Madrid, with the Groupama Arena in Budapest staging the women’s final.
Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2018
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