Skip to content

UEFA president open to Champions League final outside Europe

Reuters

The Champions League will always crown Europe's best - but not necessarily on European soil.

A city outside the continent could eventually win the right to host the Champions League final, newly appointed UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin told the Associated Press' Rob Harris on Thursday.

The competition's showpiece event has never been contested anywhere but Europe in more than 50 years of history, including the European Cup era.

Ceferin told Harris he would like to introduce an open bidding process for the final, whose host city has traditionally been decided by top executives in secret.

With the globalisation of the game, however, the former Slovenia federation president is happy to consider venues as far away as New York.

"I think it might be an idea in the future but we have to speak about it," Ceferin said. "To go from Portugal to Azerbaijan, for example, is almost the same, or the same, as if you go to New York. For the fans it's no problem, but we should see.

"It's a European competition, so let's think about it."

Related: High hopes and doubts for UEFA's little known new leader

Cardiff, Wales and Kyiv, Ukraine are the next cities in line to welcome the Champions League finalists, but things could change beyond 2018. A recent ruling has already granted Europe's top four leagues a quartet of automatic qualifying berths starting from the 2018-19 season, although Ceferin has vowed to challenge that.

But it's clear he wants to make the entire selection process more transparent. Ceferin replaced the suspended Michel Platini on the heels of a sweeping corruption scandal which threatened the integrity of the competition.

"The bidding process should be very clear because if you get the Champions League finals or Europa League finals as a political favour then it's not OK," said Ceferin. "With a clear bidding procedure I will protect also the administration and myself because whoever tries to call us, to push us, to ask us for such a favour, we will have a clear answer: 'Sorry, there are clear rules, we cannot do it.'"

Other proposals include a potential shift to Saturday or Sunday matches. The Champions League final is currently the only fixture of the tournament played on the weekend, with UEFA executives shifting it from its traditional Wednesday night slot in 2007.

East Asia is an emerging market for football sponsorships and television deals, but most of the the region is asleep when Champions League fixtures kick off.

"From a financial point of view, it's not ideal. We should think also about other markets, but how to do it exactly I'm not sure yet," he said. "China is financially interesting and the U.S. is not just financially interesting, but football is growing there."

Daily Newsletter

Get the latest trending sports news daily in your inbox