On May 29, the Porto Dragon Stadium will not be as crowded as during the opening ceremony of Euro 2004. – François-Xavier Marit / AFP
All that was missing was formalization, as the news had leaked in recent days. UEFA took care of it this Thursday. The Champions League final between Manchester City and Chelsea, initially scheduled in Istanbul on May 29, will take place in Porto. The Estádio do Dragão, or Dragon stadium in French, will host at least 12,000 English supporters.
Due to severe travel restrictions between the UK and Turkey, the choice of Atatürk Stadium, without UK fans, seemed increasingly difficult to justify. The Turkish metropolis was already scheduled to host the final last year, before being sidelined in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic.
A great first in Porto
And it is already Portugal, more exactly Lisbon, which had inherited a “Final 8” behind closed doors in August 2020, with a final won by Bayern Munich against PSG (1-0). The UEFA press release does not specify whether there is an agreement with Istanbul for the 2022 edition, now scheduled for St. Petersburg.
The modern home of FC Porto, twice winner of the C1 (1987 and 2004), hosted the final of the Nations League in 2019, but never the final match of the most prestigious of European club competitions. The body guaranteed each club 6,000 tickets, on sale from Thursday to supporters, while waiting to finalize with the local authorities the total number of authorized spectators.
Ceferin evokes “a compromise”
“The supporters had to suffer for over 12 months without the possibility of seeing their teams at the stadium. Depriving them of the chance to experience the final there was not an option, and I am happy to see that a compromise has been found, ”reacted UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin.
This final must mark the beginning of the end of the era of closed doors, since the Euro (June 11-July 11) will arrive in the wake with partially filled stadiums, in a “safe and festive” atmosphere desired by the UEFA.
At first, the United Kingdom was approached as a fallback solution, especially as the country will partially reopen its stadiums to spectators for the last two days of the Premier League.
Portugal on the British government’s “green list”
If the solution seemed to make sense for a predominantly British public, London still had to allow the media, officials and guests to enter its territory without quarantine. For lack of agreement in this direction, the body had to turn at the beginning of the week to Portugal.
This country appears on the “green list” of the British government, which allows its nationals to travel from May 17 in 12 countries and territories without the constraint of putting themselves in isolation on their return.