UEFA Have Moved the Champion League Final Host City from St Petersburg Russia to Paris France Due to Russia Invasion of Ukraine.

St Petersburg Russia has been removed as the hosting city for the European Champions League football final by UEFA on Friday and replaced by Paris France as the result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

This season's champion league final will still be held on May 28 but now at the 80,000-seat Stade de France after the decision by UEFA’s executive committee deliberation yesterday Thursday.

According to UEFA press release:

“UEFA wishes to express its thanks and appreciation to the French Republic President Emmanuel Macron for his personal support and commitment to have European club football’s most prestigious game moved to France at a time of unparalleled crisis,” European football’s governing body said in a statement.

“Together with the French government, UEFA will fully support multi-stakeholder efforts to ensure the provision of rescue for football players and their families in Ukraine who face dire human suffering, destruction and displacement.” 

There was also a decision at the meeting that Russian and Ukrainian clubs and national teams in UEFA competitions will have to play at neutral venues until further notice.

The 2021/22 #UCLfinal will move from Saint Petersburg to Stade de France in Saint-Denis.

The game will be played as initially scheduled on Saturday 28 May at 21:00 CET.

Full statement ⬇️

— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) February 25, 2022

Its been 16 years since the last Champions League final was held in Stade De France, which is the 2006 final between Barcelona against Arsenal. Barcelona won the Champions League that season.

It has been an unfortunate event for St. Petersburg stadium with 68,000 capacity, the stadium was originally picked in 20019 to host the UEFA Champion League final for the 2021 season which was later postponed by one year due to the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The stadium is named Gazprom a Russian state-owned energy firm, there is also a top-tier UEFA sponsor of the Champions League and European Championship with UEFA executive committee member Alexander Dyukov who is the CEO of a Gazprom subsidiary.

The moves by UEFA is due to the Russian invasion over Ukraine, bombing and troops pound Ukraine as Russia began invasion on Thursday morning, and world leaders on Friday began to fine-tune a response meant to punish the Russian economy and its leaders, including President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle.

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