The Football Association of Ireland has failed in its bid to host the 2029 women’s Champions League final at the Aviva Stadium, with Uefa instead awarding the final to Cardiff’s Principality Stadium following a meeting of their Executive Committee on Tuesday.
Chief executive David Courell said the FAI may bid for a future edition of the final.
“Congratulations to the Football Association of Wales on their successful bid for Cardiff to host the 2029 Uefa Women’s Champions League Final and thank you to Uefa for its positive feedback on the Association’s bid,” said Courell.
“The FAI’s ambition to host this final was part of its ongoing commitment to supporting the development of women & girls’ football and that will continue with participation levels at an all-time high, as well as more female coaches, match officials, administrators and volunteers helping to drive the game forward.
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“The Association thanks the Government, Dublin City Council, Aviva Stadium and other key stakeholders for their support with the bid and hopes that the shared desire to raise standards across the game leads to further exciting opportunities in the future, including a new bid to host the Uefa Women’s Champions League final.”
The FAI formally submitted its bid to host the final in June, and competed for hosting rights with Cardiff, the Parc Olympique Lyonnais in France, and Basle’s St Jakob-Park.
Lyon has been awarded the 2028 final, for which they also bid, while Cardiff has won the race to host the 2029 final. The FAI bid only for the 2029 final. The Principality Stadium dwarfs the capacity of the Aviva Stadium by more than 20,000 seats, and will mark the largest venue to host the final. The final’s record attendance was set in 2024, when 50,827 watched Barcelona beat Lyon at Bilbao’s San Mames. The final was previously hosted in Wales in 2017, at the smaller Cardiff City Stadium.
Elsewhere, Uefa announced that Munich’s Allianz Arena will host the 2028 men’s Champions League final, while the 2029 decider will return to the revamped Camp Nou in Barcelona for the first time since Manchester United’s victory over Bayern Munich in 1999.
The 2028 Europa League final will be held in Bucharest, with the 2029 decider awarded to Belgrade. The 2028 Conference League final will be held at Juventus’ home stadium in Turin, with the 2029 final awarded to the Puskas Arena in Budapest, host of the most recent Champions League final. The 2027 Uefa Super Cup will be held at the home of Ajax in Amsterdam, with the 2028 final to be played in Astana, Kazakhstan.
Uefa also confirmed changes to the format of the upcoming Nations League campaign, with Ireland now set to be spared automatic relegation from League B should they finish bottom of their group.
The bottom-placed side has dropped down to League C automatically up to now, with the third-placed side playing a promotion/relegation playoff to secure their status. With the Nations League switching to a three-tier format from 2028, the bottom-ranked side in League B groups will now have the opportunity to avoid relegation via a playoff with a runner-up from a League C group. Finishing third in the group would not necessitate a relegation playoff, as it did in the previous edition of the Nations League.
Ireland would be promoted to League A if they finish top of their group with Austria, Israel, and Kosovo, while a second-place finish would earn a promotion playoff. That playoff would be against a nation who finish among the two best-ranked fourth-place sides in League A, or among the two worst-ranked third-place sides.
