The step was taken after an urgent UEFA meeting last Friday
The 2022 Champions League final will no longer take place in the Russian city of St. Petersburg. Petersburg, the organizers UEFA have announced.
The move comes in the midst of the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
The football show on May 28 will instead be held at the Stade de France in Paris.
In a statement, UEFA thanked French President Emmanuel Macron for his “personal support” for facilitating the change in “a time of unprecedented crisis”.
“Together with the French Government, UEFA will fully support the efforts of several stakeholders to ensure the provision of rescue services for football players and their families in Ukraine facing terrible human suffering, destruction and expulsion,” it added.
Russian and Ukrainian clubs and national teams will have to play home games on neutral ground until UEFA decides otherwise.
The decision could include Russia’s World Cup qualifier semi-final at home against Poland on March 24, as well as a potentially decisive final five days later if Valeri Karpin’s team were to win.
The victory over Poland would mean that Russia would host Sweden or the Czech Republic, even if these two nations joined Poland and demanded that FIFA and UEFA switch matches to a neutral place due to security fears.
UEFA said it was prepared to hold extra meetings and make further decisions based on an ongoing assessment of the “legal and factual situation”.
The relocation of the Champions League marks the third year in a row that the tent event in the European club football calendar has been moved from its original location.
The finals in 2020 and 2021 were both moved from Turkey to Portugal due to restrictions for the Covid pandemic.
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson and his Foreign Secretary, Liz Truss, were among the leaders who demanded that the final be moved before UEFA announced its decision.
Speaking in the lower house on Tuesday, Johnson suggested that Russia “had no chance of holding football tournaments” after its first operation in the Donbass.
“I think it is inconceivable that major international football tournaments could take place in Russia,” he added.
(RT.com)
Source: sn.dk