Man City and Chelsea fans will have travel to Portugal for the match
UEFA have announced that the Champions League Final on 29 May between Manchester City and Chelsea has been moved to Porto.
The match had originally been scheduled to take place in Istanbul, but Turkey is in the middle of a lockdown due to Covid infection rates, and English fans would not have been able to travel as Turkey was placed on the government’s travel red list.
Portugal is on the green list, so fans will not need to quarantine on return from the country if they travel to the game. Players will also not have any issues in travelling and will therefore be able to begin preparations for the European Championships shortly after the final.
Chelsea and City will get 6,000 tickets each for the final at Porto’s Estádio do Dragão.
The UK government had been eager to bring the game to Wembley, seeing as it involved two English clubs and would eliminate the need for international travel. However talks hit complications.
The main stumbling block was reportedly that UEFA wanted staff, media, and sponsors to be able to travel to the UK without needing to quarantine. The government was not prepared to agree to the number of exemptions requested.
UEFA reached an agreement with Porto to host the final after resolving questions over such travel restrictions and reaching guarantees on the number of fans that can attend and travel exemptions for officials, media and sponsors.
UEFA’s president Aleksander Ceferin said, per the Guardian: “I hope the final will be a symbol of hope at the re-emergence of Europe from a difficult period and that the fans who travel to the game will once again be able to lend their voices to showcase this final as the best in club football.
“We accept that the decision of the British government to place Turkey on the red list for travel was taken in good faith and in the best interests of protecting its citizens from the spread of the virus but it also presented us with a major challenge in staging a final featuring two English teams.
“The difficulties of moving the final are great and the FA and the authorities made every effort to try to stage the match in England and I would like to thank them for their work in trying to make it happen.”
Absolute sucker punch for Villa Park though…
