UEFA have announced that the 2021-22 UEFA Champions League Final on Saturday 28 May has been moved from St Petersburg to Paris.
This decision came following an emergency summit at UEFA following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in recent days, which ultimately led to the decision to strip St Petersburg, Russia, of the right to host the 2021-22 UEFA Champions League Final.
The showpiece match will instead take place in France at Stade de France, Saint Denis, which is located in the northern suburbs of Paris, whilst retaining its original date of Saturday 28 May with a 9:00pm CET kick-off (8pm UK Time).
Speaking about the announcement, UEFA expressed their ‘appreciation’ to France President, Emmanuel Macron for providing ‘personal support and commitment’ to ensure the movement of the match amidst ‘unparalleled crisis’ across Ukraine and Russia.
UEFA have also vowed to work with the French Government and stakeholders to help supports efforts to rescue football players and families still stranded in Ukraine, which comes after Brazil players across Shakhtar Donetsk and Dynamo Kyiv issued a rescue appeal on social media.
A decision has also been made that Russian and Ukrainian clubs plus National Teams must play their competitive fixtures across UEFA competitions at neutral venues, until UEFA give permission for games to be played at home stadiums again.
In terms of impacted clubs in UEFA competitions, only Spartak Moscow is impacted with the Russian club currently competing in the Round of 16 in this season’s Europa League.
UEFA’s decision also means that Russia Women are set to participate at this summer’s UEFA Women’s Euros as planned, where they are set to face Switzerland, Netherlands and Sweden in Group C.
UEFA also offered assurances that their Executive Committee will ‘remain on standby’ with view to further regular emergency meetings when required, which will seek ‘to reassess the legal and factual situation as it evolves and adopt further decisions as necessary.’
These developments currently won’t affect Europa League and Europa Conference League Finals, which are set to be held in Seville, Spain, and Tirana, Albania, respectively
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