the Champions League final will be played at the Stade de France

The final of the Football Champions League will finally be played at the Stade de France on the scheduled date, franceinfo learned on Friday February 25. It was originally scheduled to be played on May 28 in St Petersburg, Russia, but after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, UEFA called for an extraordinary meeting of its executive committee on Friday morning.

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According to information from franceinfo, this change of stadium was directly negotiated by UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin who telephoned Emmanuel Macron. A form of thanks to the French president who had been one of the most powerful supporters at the time of the Super League crisis, this closed competition wanted by a dozen of the biggest European clubs. It is also a symbol in the midst of the Russian-Ukrainian crisis, according to UEFA, while France currently holds the presidency of the European Union. The Hungarian or even British proposals will therefore not have succeeded, as well as those, staggering, from the Gulf countries.

The choice of the Stade de France was also facilitated by UEFA’s knowledge of it. The enclosure had indeed hosted seven matches of Euro 2016, including the final lost by France against Portugal (0-1). The Stade de France will therefore once again host a C1 final, 16 years after that won (2-1) by FC Barcelona of Rijkaard, Ronaldinho and Eto’o against Arsenal of Wenger, Pirès and Henry. For the past two seasons, the Champions League final had already had to be relocated from Istanbul to Lisbon in 2019 then Porto in 2020, due to the health context.