October 21 – New UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has given the biggest hint yet that a bidding process will be put in place for staging UEFA’s major club finals.
While the venue for the World Cup and European Championship finals have always gone to a vote, cities staging the climax of the Champions League and Europa League have until now been awarded as a fait accompli without any tendering process.
But that now seems certain to change.
“The bidding process should be very clear because if you get the Champions League finals or Europa League finals as a political favour then it’s not OK,” Ceferin said. “With a clear bidding procedure I will protect also the administration and myself because whoever tries to call us, to push us, to ask us for such a favour we will have a clear answer, ‘Sorry, there are clear rules we cannot do it.'”
In an interview with AP, Ceferin also made the bizarre suggestion the Champions League final could be contested outside Europe for the first time.
All 61 finals to date have been held in Europe but Ceferin said: “It might be an idea in future but we have to speak about it. To go from Portugal to Azerbaijan for example is almost the same or the same as if you go to New York. For the fans it’s no problem but we should see. It’s a European competition so let’s think about it.”
But the Slovenian Football Association chief said he would not be comfortable changing kick-off times to suit non-European markets.
“From a financial point of view it’s not ideal,” Ceferin said. “We should think also about other markets, but how to do it exactly I’m not sure yet. China is financially interesting and the US is not just financially interesting, but football is growing there.”
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