Has the Champions League final passed Europe? Is it only a matter of time before club football’s biggest match takes place in the United States, the Middle East, or even further afield?
Last week, Juan Emilio Roa, CONMEBOL’s commercial director, said that discussions about hosting the Copa Libertadores outside South America had taken place, primarily to take advantage of commercial opportunities. However, the UEFA issue has become a practical issue rather than a commercial or financial one.
Despite the prestige of hosting the final, as well as the potential financial boost to the local economy of the chosen city, UEFA announced last week that only Munich had submitted a bid to host the 2028 final, while only London and Barcelona had entered the race for the rights to stage the 2029 final.
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Barcelona have not hosted a Champions League final since Manchester United beat Bayern Munich at Camp Nou in 1999, in the old stadium that fell from the final stage, but has now been extensively refurbished and will reopen soon. But the Allianz Arena in Munich hosted the final this year between Paris Saint-Germain and Inter Milan, while Wembley Stadium in London will host it in 2024, hosting the final for the third time in 13 years.
With UEFA stripping AC Milan of its 2027 hosting rights due to the city’s failure to provide guarantees that the San Siro would be in a fit state to host the match – Inter and AC Milan confirmed plans this week to demolish the stadium and build a new 71,500-capacity arena on the current site – Atletico Madrid Metropolitano was announced in September as the new host, having recently hosted the final in 2019.
Are we heading towards the Champions League final? Could we soon see Real Madrid vs. Liverpool in New York City, or Bayern Munich vs. Paris Saint-Germain in Chicago?
“If the Champions League final is held in the United States, it will be a huge success,” Charlie Stillitano, a US-based sports executive and promoter, told ESPN.
“Don Garber, the commissioner of Major League Soccer, has gone on record as saying that the US is the ATM of world football, and I remember former Manchester United and Chelsea CEO Peter Kenyon telling me 20 years ago that the US had 50 million football fans with money. The number may now be as high as 100 million, and there is an insatiable appetite for major sporting events in the US, especially high-end products like the Champions League final.”
“But UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin recently said he wanted to play Europa League matches at home when permission was granted to play Villarreal’s La Liga match against Barcelona in Miami, so because of that, I don’t see UEFA moving the Champions League final abroad anytime soon.”
Barcelona’s match in Miami with Villarreal has since been cancelled, but plans remain for Milan to play their Serie A match against Como in Perth, Australia, next February. Although Ceferin expressed his reservations about holding league matches abroad, he said in 2023 that it was “possible” to hold the Champions League final in the United States.
However, it is clear that UEFA faces a dwindling pool of suitable host cities and stadiums for the game. Between the first edition of the Champions League in 1993 and Liverpool’s victory over Milan in Istanbul in 2005, twelve different cities staged the thirteen finals during that period, with Munich’s Olympic Stadium only hosting them twice. Athens, Vienna, Rome, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Paris, Milan, Glasgow (Hampden Park), Manchester (Old Trafford), Gelsenkirchen and Istanbul completed the diverse list.
But sources told ESPN that UEFA has now come down to no fewer than four risk-free places for future Champions League finals due to requirements each host city must meet to stage the match. It must have a stadium with a capacity of at least 65,000 spectators and surrounding space for a safe perimeter, but also significant infrastructure, including an international airport and a large domestic transportation system, as well as hotel room capacity capable of handling the influx of traveling fans, sponsors, media, and VIPs.
The host stadium must also be able to provide a broadcast complex – plenty of space to accommodate studios, heavy goods vehicles and communications lines – while there must also be enough corporate entertainment areas to meet the huge demand.
With a capacity of 90,000 spectators, 161 corporate cabins and nine separate banquet suites capable of hosting 18,000 guests, as well as links to four major airports, an extensive public transport network and huge hotel space, sources told ESPN that Wembley is considered by UEFA to be the ideal venue for the Champions League final.
The new Camp Nou, Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu and Metropolitano have similar features, while Munich also meets UEFA’s requirements, albeit with a smaller stadium and a range of hotel rooms.
Budapest will host the 2026 final at the 67,100-capacity Puskas Arena, but the occasion will extend to the far reaches of the Hungarian capital. It has one airport and a Soviet-era metro system, while travel website Booking.com reports that 92% of accommodation in the city is already unavailable for the Champions League final weekend of 29-30 May. If Budapest proves successful, it could open the door for similar cities to host the Champions League final. But UEFA’s options are limited at the moment.
Moscow (the 2008 host) and Saint Petersburg (which was due to host the 2022 final before it was moved to Paris) are out of the question due to Russia being banned from UEFA competitions since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Kiev, which will host the 2018 final, is also out of the question due to the ongoing conflict. Rome’s Stadio Olimpico has not hosted the final since 2009, with neither the stadium nor the infrastructure in the Italian capital keeping up with requirements. Paris is unlikely to be considered until UEFA is satisfied that the crowd control issues that overshadowed the 2022 final between Real Madrid and Liverpool will not be repeated.
Previous host nations such as Vienna, Amsterdam and Glasgow no longer have suitable stadiums, while infrastructure and hotel space will also work against Athens, Lisbon, Manchester and Cardiff. Berlin would be a potential option if the city made a bid, but Baku failed to secure a bid to host in 2027, largely due to difficulties faced by fans traveling in large numbers to Azerbaijan from Western Europe.
“I attended the 2019 Europa League final between Arsenal and Chelsea in Baku,” Stillitano said. “And let me tell you, it would have been easier and cheaper for the fans if the match had been in New York and not in Azerbaijan.
“The United States could certainly host the Champions League final, no doubt. More than five million fans have already signed up for tickets to next year’s World Cup, so the appetite and money are there, but I think the most likely next step is to hold the Club World Cup every two years.”
“FIFA, UEFA and the Premier League are the three most powerful soccer organizations/brands in the world, and FIFA and the Premier League have already arrived on the American sports scene. So we’ll see what happens with UEFA, but I think it’s difficult for them to take the Champions League outside of Europe at the moment.”
UEFA has no current plans to stage the Champions League final outside Europe, but the organization now has a choice to make: accept a handful of host cities for the Champions League final – London, Madrid, Munich and Barcelona – or go global and take club football’s biggest game to the world, the sources said.
