The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) announced on Friday that they have decided to move the Champions League Final venue from Saint Petersburg to Paris, considering the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Krestovsky Stadium, known as Gazprom Arena on Krestovsky Island in St. Petersburg, Russia, was initially slated to host the 2022 final.
The final of the most elite European club competition will take place on May 28, 2022, at the Stade de France, in the Paris district of Saint-Denis for the third time in the tournament's history and the first since 2006. The last it hosted a UCL final was in 2006 when Barcelona beat Arsenal 2-1.
"UEFA wishes to express its gratitude to the French Republic President Emmanuel Macron for his personal support and dedication in ensuring that European club football's most prestigious game is relocated to France at a moment of unprecedented turmoil," said the governing body in a statement.
How many times has the UEFA Champions League Final venue been changed?
This has been the third successive time that UEFA were forced to change the Champions League Final location. The Estadio do Dragao in Porto, Portugal, hosted the final of the 2020/21 Champions League between Manchester City and Chelsea. Because of travel restrictions between the UK and Turkey, UEFA were obliged to relocate the match from its intended host venue, the Ataturk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul.
The British government placed Turkey on its red list for travel shortly after the identities of the two finalists were revealed, requiring supporters to quarantine for 10 days upon their return to the UK. As a result, UEFA were compelled to change the host site. The previous season, the 2019-2020 Champions League Final between Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern (0-1) was also shifted from Saint Petersburg, Russia, to Lisbon, Portugal.
The final hosts were pushed back a year owing to the postponing and relocation of the 2020 final from the Krestovsky Stadium to Lisbon as a result of the COVID-19 epidemic in Europe. UEFA stated two weeks before the final that it would be moved to the Estadio da Luz in order to accommodate a smaller number of fans.
