- UEFA has announced that the 2022 Champions League Final will be played at Stade de France in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis Saturday 28 May at 21:00 CET.
- The final was originally scheduled to be played in Russia but that became untenable following the Ukraine invasion.
- Separately, UEFA released a statement condemning the invasion.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has brought the anger of the civilized world to bear on Vladimir Putin. It’s also created some major changes in the world of sports including the relocation of the biggest single day betting event internationally.
UEFA has announced that the 2022 Champions League Final will be played at the Stade de France in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis on Saturday, May 28 at 21:00 CET (4:00 PM EDT/1: 00 PM PDT). The contest was originally slated to be held on the same day at the Gazprom Arena in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The decision was made at an emergency meeting of the UEFA Executive Committee called to address what they described as ‘the grave escalation of the security situation in Europe.’
The UEFA Executive Committee released this brief statement announcing their decision:
The UEFA Executive Committee today held an extraordinary meeting following the grave escalation of the security situation in Europe.
The UEFA Executive Committee decided to relocate the final of the 2021/22 UEFA Men’s Champions League 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.
UEFA wishes to express its thanks and appreciation to 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. 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.
At today’s meeting, the UEFA Executive Committee also decided that Russian and Ukrainian clubs and national teams competing in UEFA competitions will be required to play their home matches at neutral venues until further notice.
The UEFA Executive Committee further determined to remain on standby to convene further extraordinary meetings, on a regular ongoing basis where required, to reassess the legal and factual situation as it evolves and adopt further decisions as necessary.
Late Thursday, UEFA announced the aforementioned meeting as they condemned the Ukraine invasion:
UEFA shares the international community’s significant concern for the security situation developing in Europe and strongly condemns the ongoing Russian military invasion in Ukraine.
As the governing body of European football, UEFA is working tirelessly to develop and promote football according to common European values such as peace and respect for human rights, in the spirit of the Olympic Charter. We remain resolute in our solidarity with the football community in Ukraine and stand ready to extend our hand to the Ukrainian people.
We are dealing with this situation with the utmost seriousness and urgency. Decisions will be taken by the UEFA Executive Committee and announced tomorrow.
The intent of government financial sanctions–as well as decisions such as UEFA’s–is to isolate Russia from the rest of the world in every way possible. So far that’s definitely happening not only at the governmental level but at the ‘grass roots’ level as individual countries’ people take to the streets to display their outrage.
