Portugal to host Champions League final

By IANS

LISBON: The Dragao Stadium, in the Portuguese city of Porto, will host on May 29 the final of the Champions League, involving the English teams from Manchester City and Chelsea, European football’s governing body UEFA announced.

“Porto was chosen to replace Istanbul, following the insurmountable travel difficulties of English fans, taking into account that Turkey is on the UK’s ‘red list,'” UEFA said on Thursday, Xinhua reports.

In addition to the change of venue, UEFA also confirmed the presence of at least 12,000 spectators at Dragao Stadium in “cooperation with the Portuguese authorities and with the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF).”

“Once again, we call on our partners in Portugal to help us, and I am, as always, very grateful to the Portuguese Football Federation and the Portuguese Government for having agreed to organize the game in such a short period of time,” said the UEFA president, Aleksander Ceferin.

“Whenever there is an obstacle, they have been creative in the solutions they found, and the fact that they are organizing this year’s final is clearly due to the hard work and perseverance they have shown,” added Ceferin in praise to the Portuguese.

The Portuguese government has announced that foreign fans traveling to Porto to watch the final of the football Champions League will be staying less than 24 hours in Portugal and will all be tested for COVID-19.

“People who come to the Champions League final will come and return on the same day, with a test done, in a ‘bubble’ situation, that is, on charter flights, with trips to a waiting area and from there to the stadium and then to the airport,” said Portuguese Minister of State and the Presidency, Mariana Vieira da Silva, in a press conference.

It is the second consecutive final to be held in Portugal, since just under a year ago, UEFA held the final games in Lisbon, at the stadiums of Luz and Jose Alvalade due to the conditions of control of the pandemic of COVID-19.