UEFA has now moved the finals of the Champions League on May 28 to Paris from St Petersburg, because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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News in Detail
The executive committee of UEFA held an emergency meeting on Friday. It was decided that they are going to move the showpiece to the Stade de France from the 68,000 capacity Gazprom Arena in Vladimir Putin’s home city.
The official statement stated by the UEFA was “The UEFA Executive Committee today held an extraordinary meeting following the grave escalation of the security situation in Europe”. It also said that “The UEFA Executive Committee decided to relocate the final of the 2021/22 UEFA Men’s Champions League from Saint Petersburg to Stade de France in Saint-Denis. The game will be paid initially scheduled on Saturday 28 May at 21:00 CET.
“UEFA wishes to express its thanks and appreciation to the French Republic President Emmanuel Macron for his personal support and commitment to have European club football’s most prestigious game moved to France at a time of unparalleled crisis. Together with the French government, UEFA will fully support multi-stakeholder efforts to ensure the provision of rescue for the football players and their families in Ukraine who face human suffering, destruction, and displacement.”
The UEFA executive committee has also decided that Russian and Ukrainian clubs and national teams who are competing in UEFA competitions will be required to play their home matches at neutral venues until further notice.
This is set to affect Spartak Moscow in the Europa League and also Russia and Ukraine in the year 2022-23 Nations league which is due yet to get underway in June. FIFA has still not decided on what to do about next month’s World Cup play-off matches.
Russia hosts a play-off semi-final on 24 of March and would then face the winner of Sweden vs Czech Republic semi-final in Russia for a place in Qatar.
The federations of Poland, Sweden, and the Czech Republic provided a statement on Thursday insisting matches should not be played in Russian territory and also demanded ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS must be found.
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