UEFA announced on Thursday that
the Champions League final between Manchester City and Chelsea had been moved
from Istanbul to Porto.
The match on May 29 has been
switched to the Estadio do Dragao to allow English spectators to attend as
travel between the UK and Turkey is suspended because of the coronavirus
pandemic.
Earlier, European football’s
governing body announced up to 6,000 supporters from each club will be able to
attend.
“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,” UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin said in a
statement.
“After the year that fans have
endured, it is not right that they don’t have the chance to watch their teams in
the biggest game of the season,” he added.
UK citizens returning from red
list countries are required to quarantine at a government-approved hotel for 10
days.
Earlier this week, newspaper
reports claimed the match would be played at Wembley Stadium.
Supporters groups from the Blues
and City had requested the game be moved to England.
The UK’s Transport secretary
Grant Shapps said he would have welcomed the fixture being played in London.
“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,” Ceferin said.
UEFA said coronavirus rules in
the UK made it difficult to hold the fixture in the English capital.
“UEFA discussed moving the match
to England but, despite exhaustive efforts on the part of the Football
Association and the authorities, it was not possible to achieve the necessary
exemptions from UK quarantine arrangements,” it said.
The final capacity at the ground
in northern Portugal is still to be set.
Last season’s final as well as a
‘Final 8’ tournament for the quarter-finals were also held in Portugal, but in
the capital Lisbon.
“Once again we have turned to
our friends in Portugal to help both UEFA and the Champions League and I am, as
always, very grateful to the FPF (Portuguese Football Association) and the
Portuguese Government for agreeing to stage the match at such short notice,”
Ceferin said.
The last round of the country’s
top-flight Primeira Liga will see spectators return to stadia on May 19, with a
limited number of people permitted, the league said on Wednesday.
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