An interesting snippet from this morning’s Andrew Marr show came from Michael Gove, who confirmed reports that the Culture Secretary, Oliver Dowden, is in talks with the FA and UEFA over moving the Champions League Final from its current location, Istanbul, to a stadium somewhere in the UK.
Istanbul’s Olympic Stadium initially won the bid to host the 2020 final - but the tournament’s final stages were moved to Portugal as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, with Istanbul’s hosting moved back a year to 2021. Now, with Turkey grappling with a new wave of the virus, the UK in a much more positive situation, and that the final is set to host two English teams in Manchester City and Chelsea, it was perhaps inevitable that the topic of moving the final would be mooted.
But what are the UK government’s key arguments here? And how can they satisfy UEFA that a UK stadium (Villa Park has been suggested, with Gove himself suggesting Hampden Park could be considered) would be a better option than UEFA? Below are what one could expect to be discussed - three in favour of moving, one neutral, and one which needs satisfying.
1. Fans can attend
This is probably the government’s key argument here. As a result of the UK’s successful rollout of the coronavirus vaccine, it is set to host fans at football matches as soon as this month. Add in that the UK will also host fans at this summer’s EUROs, a lot is in the UK’s favour in this region.
Turkey, meanwhile, is struggling with a further wave of the virus and is currently under a national lockdown. It is not in a position to make the same guarantees.
2. Two English sides
Manchester City and Chelsea both qualified for the final, making it an all English final. The government can make two cases here - first, the practical case of traipsing two squads of players from the same nation clear across Europe for a football match (in the middle of a global pandemic). They can also make the environmental case that making teams fly clear across Europe when they could simply play in their own nation would make no sense.
3. The Red List
England announced its “red list” of countries on Friday, which designated countries where tourists have to self-isolate for 10 days on their return (or entry to) the UK. Turkey was placed on this list and the UK is advising against travel to the country. This means no fans from Manchester or London (or anywhere in the UK for that matter) can travel to the Champions League final featuring two of their own teams. The UK government is advising against it.
4. The precedent of moving finals
The fact that the 2020 European finals were moved (the Champions League was moved from Istanbul to Portugal, while the Europa League was moved from Gdansk to Germany) could be taken both ways. On the one hand, moving the final has happened before, why not do it again? UEFA could use this as an opportunity to move towards a more fluid system of allocating the final which would choose a location convenient to both teams. But this brings up the final problem:
5. Istanbul won the bid
The 2020 finals were only moved because of the pandemic, and the original hosts were compensated by hosting the following year. Istanbul put time, effort and money into winning the Champions League final. It already missed out on the final it bid for (2020), and the reaction to missing out on 2021 is not likely to be a positive one.
If UEFA were to move towards a more fluid system of allocating the final, this would reduce the number of potential hosts down to a vanishingly small number of locations. Only four sides outside of Western Europe have ever made the final. The last was Red Star Belgrade in 1991, and the country it represented (Yugoslavia) no longer exists.
Is this likely?
How likely this is depends on how optimistic you are about UEFA. The fact that the UK government are in talks - and a government minister was comfortable confirming this in a BBC interview - tells you that these talks are probably further down the track than is reported. But that doesn’t mean it will happen. The UK is clearly in a better position right now to host the final than Istanbul is. But, as we know with UEFA, that doesn’t mean it’s going to happen.
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