Atletico Madrid’s Estadio Metropolitano has surprise rival to host Champions League final
Cardiff, Barcelona, Warsaw and Basel are meanwhile bidding to host the 2027 Women’s Champions League final
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Azerbaijan wants to host the 2027 Champions League final after it was stripped from Milan’s San Siro.
The two declarations of interest for the men’s showpiece have come from the Olympic Stadium in Baku, the Azerbaijani capital, and the Estadio Metropolitano, Atletico Madrid’s ground, which hosted the 2019 final.
Final proposals have to be delivered by 19 March 2025 but the Azerbaijani bid raises the prospect of the most easterly Champions League final and the first to be played in the former Soviet Union since Real Madrid’s 2018 triumph in Kyiv. The 2022 game was due to be played in St Petersburg but was switched to Paris after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Olympic Stadium has a capacity of 69,870 and was the venue for the 2019 Europa League final when Arsenal’s Armenian midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan did not travel to Azerbaijan because of concerns about his safety amid an ongoing conflict between the neighbouring countries.
Meanwhile, the Principality Stadium in Cardiff is one of four potential venues for the 2027 women’s final, along with the Camp Nou in Barcelona, the National Stadium in Warsaw and St Jakob Park in Basel.
The Welsh capital staged the 2017 women’s Champions League final, but at the Cardiff City Stadium, while the men’s final was played at the Principality Stadium the same year.
The 2025 men’s final will be played in Munich and 2026 in Budapest. The 2027 match had been awarded to San Siro but Uefa decided last month it could not go ahead there after the city of Milan failed to provide guarantees it would be ready during renovation work.
The bidding process was reopened, with Baku and Madrid the two cities who have declared an interest so far. Madrid has staged five previous Champions League finals, with the first four at Real’s Bernabeu Stadium.
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