Munich to host 2028 Champions League final. Wembley and Camp Nou up for 2029 final
News > Sports News
 
        Audio By Carbonatix
7:23 AM on Friday, October 31
By GRAHAM DUNBAR
GENEVA (AP) — Bayern Munich’s stadium is set to host another Champions League final in 2028, and staging the 2029 final is a contest between Wembley Stadium in London and Barcelona’s renovated Camp Nou.
UEFA confirmed Friday the list of interested bidders from among its member associations, suggesting a long-speculated final in New York will not happen until at least 2030.
“The declarations of interest are not binding, and the final proposals must be delivered with the bid dossiers by June 10,” UEFA said in a statement.
Munich was the only bid for the 2028 final. It hosted the final last season and Wembley staged the previous final in 2024. Barcelona has not been the final venue since 1999, when Manchester United famously stunned Bayern with two stoppage-time goals.
The behind-schedule Camp Nou renovation should lift capacity to 105,000, the largest in Europe.
The UEFA executive committee is due to decide next September on hosts for all club competitions' finals in 2028 and 2029.
The Champions League final this season is at the Puskas Arena in Budapest — with a new early evening kickoff time in Europe — and the 2027 final is at Atletico Madrid’s stadium.
Barcelona and Atletico were members of the failed Super League project in 2021, as was Juventus which also wants to host European finals.
The 41,000-seat Juventus stadium in Turin is proposed by the Italian soccer federation to host a final in either the Europa League or the third-tier Conference League for each year on offer. The venue hosted the Europa League final in 2014 when Juventus lost in the semifinals.
Romania's National Stadium in Bucharest also is competing for either of the Europa League finals. So too is the French soccer federation which at this first stage has not decided between Parc des Princes in Paris and Lyon's home stadium.
Two stadiums now being built also are competing. The new Serbian national arena in Belgrade is in the 2028 contest, and the 2029 race includes the Ankara 19 Mayıs Stadium in Turkey.
The 67,000-seat Puskas Arena also is a candidate to get the Conference League final in 2028 or 2029, and would be the biggest venue yet for the third-tier event launched in 2021. The first two finals had fewer than 20,000 people attend in Tirana and Prague.
Also in both contests are the home stadium of Lille, Arena Gdansk in Poland and Kazakhstan, which has yet to decide between the capital Astana and the home of Champions League newcomer Kairat Almaty.
Helsinki Olympic Stadium in Finland is a candidate for the 2029 final.
Lyon’s home stadium — which hosted the 2019 Women's World Cup final won by the United States — also is competing for the marquee women's final in either year. So is St. Jakob Park, Basel, which staged the Women's European Championship final this year.
The 2028 contest includes the home stadiums of Athletic Bilbao and Galatasaray, in Istanbul. The 2029 candidates include Ireland's national soccer stadium in Dublin plus Wales' in Cardiff, which hosted the men's Champions League final in 2017.
___
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
 
                     
                     
                 
                 
                 
                 
                 
                