"Indicator of Confidence in Russia": St. Petersburg received the right to host the Champions League final in 2021

New finale for the young arena

At the UEFA Executive Committee in Ljubljana, it was decided that the Champions League final will be held in St. Petersburg. The European media reported on the likelihood of such a scenario back in late August. In addition to the northern capital, the Alliance Arena in Munich also claimed to host a prestigious match, which already hosted the main European Cup final in 2012. The filing of applications started in September 2018 and ended in February of this year.

This time they decided to give the match to the Russian city. At the same time, “Alliance Arena” organizes the finals a year after St. Petersburg. And in 2023, teams will determine the owner of a prestigious trophy at Wembley Stadium in London. It also became known which cities will host the Europa League 2020/21 final and the match for the European Super Cup in 2021. They became Sevilla and Belfast, respectively.

The Gazprom Arena, highly acclaimed by UEFA, seats 62,315 spectators and was opened in 2017. Despite her youth, she has already managed to host the Confederations Cup matches, including the final, and the World Cup. At the same time, the general director of the stadium Vladimir Litvinov immediately after the publication of the voting results announced that the arena would require minor modifications.

“The stadium for the most part meets the requirements. It will be necessary to carry out minor improvements. From season to season, the requirements for arenas are changing, changes to the UEFA rules will have to be completed, but significant work will not be carried out, ”TASS quoted Litvinova as saying.

“This finale will be the best in history”

At the same time, the stadium has already received real international recognition, because next year it will host four matches of the European Championship. Thus, over the several years of its existence, the arena will host all the largest tournaments on the planet and the final of the main European competition. And the president of the Russian Football Union, Alexander Dyukov, has already said that the decisive match of the Champions League in St. Petersburg will be the best in history.

“We are very pleased that St. Petersburg received the right to host the main match of the most prestigious international club tournament - the Champions League final. We would like to thank the UEFA Executive Committee, which made such a choice. In recent years, Russia has become one of the centers of the football world, we are ready to actively use our infrastructure for the development of this sport. Gazprom Arena has the unique experience of organizing events of the highest level. St. Petersburg is a hospitable and beautiful city in which guests are loved and appreciated. I’m sure the Champions League final will be the best in history and will be remembered by the fans and residents of the city! ”Dyukov quoted the official site of the RFU as saying.

In turn, the vice-governor of the city Vladimir Kirillov assured that the arena is fully prepared for the crucial event.

“The Champions League final will be held in our city for the first time. And today it is safe to say that St. Petersburg is ready to hold this status football match. A worthy infrastructural heritage and accumulated experience in conducting sporting events of the highest level will certainly contribute to its successful organization, ”Kirillov emphasized.

Finally, the director of the organizing committee of the Russian part of Euro 2020 Alexei Sorokin called the decision to give the final to St. Petersburg an indicator of confidence in Russia from the international football community. He also told how the struggle for the match itself went.

“This time the competition was held without risk for UEFA, since all the stadiums under consideration have great experience, are able to accept the Champions League final. It so happened that there was no fierce struggle for the same year: the German side immediately decided that it wanted to hold the final in 2022. Therefore, everything decomposed quite successfully, without any unnecessary competition, ”added Sorokin.

How Russia hosted European Cup finals

The final of the Champions League 2020/21 will be the third European Cup final to be held in Russia. Earlier, Luzhniki hosted the decisive match of the UEFA Cup-1998/99, as well as the main meeting of the Champions League-2007/08.

Before the first game in the obsolete arena, a fairly serious repair was carried out. In particular, wooden benches were replaced with plastic seats. Old lighting masts with a bowl of Olympic flame were also dismantled.

As a result, Juventus and Marseille came together in the final, and the Turinians, with the young Gianluigi Buffon and Zinedine Zidane, won a landslide victory - 3-0.

And nine years later, Luzhniki was entrusted with holding the decisive match of the main European Cup, in which two English teams met - Manchester United and Chelsea. Moreover, the Moscow stadium in the fight for a significant event ahead of the English Wembley, as well as the Olympic stadiums in Berlin, Seville and Rome.

This time the capital experienced an influx of tens of thousands of British, and the organization was again at the highest level. Moreover, the Russian authorities took unprecedented measures and allowed fans to enter the country without a visa if they had a ticket for the match. And charter flights with the fans of the teams were specially divorced at different airports for security purposes.

As a result, “MJ” won in a penalty shootout with heavy rain, and the ex-captain of “Chelsea” John Terry became the main anti-hero of the match, who did not realize the decisive blow from the “point”, slipping on a bump.