UEFA confirm Champions League final venues until 2025
By Tom Gott
UEFA have confirmed the host cities for all the Champions League finals up until 2025.
The 2021 final had been scheduled to be played in Istanbul but was eventually moved to Porto after the UK government restricted travel to Turkey, which would have had a significant impact on finalists Chelsea and Manchester City.
Moving that game has had a knock-on effect to the host cities of the next four tournaments. The Saint Petersburg Stadium in Russia will keep the 2022 Champions League final, but UEFA confirmed on their official website that the 2023 showcase will be played in Istanbul's Atatürk Olympic Stadium.
That 2023 game, which had originally been booked for Munich, Germany, has instead been pushed back to 2025, with Wembley in London retaining the rights for 2024.
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Champions League final venues
2022: Saint Petersburg Stadium, Saint Petersburg, Russia
2023: Atatürk Olympic Stadium, Istanbul, Turkey
2024: Wembley Stadium, London, England
2025: Allianz Arena, Munich, Germany
On top of the rearranged 2023 final, Istanbul will also host the European Club Season Kick-Off, which includes the draws for the group stage of the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and UEFA Europa Conference League, for both 2021/22 and 2022/23.
In their bulletin, UEFA also cleared up some of the mess relating to Dublin and Bilbao, two cities which were supposed to host matches at Euro 2020 but eventually pulled out.
Neither city could meet UEFA's updated COVID safety guidelines relating to the return of fans at this summer's tournament and were forced to withdraw from the competition, but UEFA still hope to give both a chance to host a major game.
Dublin has therefore been handed the 2024 Europa League final, and Bilbao will take both the 2024 Women's Champions League final and the 2025 Europa League final.