UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin,
speaking at Oxford University, said one solution is to have the
Champions League final taking place at only the biggest venues on a rotating list.
“My thinking now is we should play the finals in bigger stadiums — even if we go to the same four, five places.
“We had 62,000 tickets in Madrid and 980,000 requests. If we would play for example in Wembley we would have 30,000 more [tickets].
“Probably that as a top, top, top event should be played only at the top venues. But
Europa League and everything else should be shared with the others who love football.”
Seven stadia around Europe
currently have a maximum capacity of 80,000 or more.
- 1. Camp Nou, Barcelona – 99,354
- 2. Wembley Stadium, London – 90,000
- 3. Signal Iduna Park, Dortmund – 81,359
- 4. Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid – 81,044
- 5. Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow – 81,006
- 6. San Siro, Milan – 80,018
- 7. Stade de France, Paris – 80,000
A further seven hold 70,000 or more, including Baku’s Olympic Stadium—where the 18/19
Europa League final was held—and Kyiv’s Olimpiyskiy Stadium, the scene of the Reds’ 2018
Champions League final defeat.
While such a move from UEFA would certainly rule out Anfield of hosting the final any time in the near future, it would at least mean that each competing team should get an extra batch of tickets for their fans.
At the rate of last year’s final ticket split, having the final at Wembley would see each team receive around 23,000 apiece, a notable upgrade on the scarcity of tickets in Madrid.
Of course, there’s
still the question of whether UEFA should reserve 44,000 tickets for their own distribution methods out of a 90,000 stadium, but that’s a different matter.
Fans of all clubs will take any positive step forward at this point to help ease the difficulty of watching their team in action, and this could be one such move—if UEFA actually make good on the proposal.
