Champions League final could be staged outside of Europe

The new Uefa president has suggested the Champions League final could be contested in New York or elsewhere outside Europe for the first time. Aleksander Ceferin, the Slovenian who came from nowhere to succeed the disgraced Michel Platini as Uefa president last month, said he planned to open up the right to stage the final to a transparent bidding process and was open to it being staged in the US.

“I think it might be an idea in future but we have to speak about it,” Ceferin said, highlighting the fact that a flight to the east coast of the US could take the same time as one across Europe.

“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.”

One idea that has been mooted is moving the semi-finals to the weekend, like the final, in order to enable more international viewers to tune in.

“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,” Ceferin told the Associated Press.

Currently only the final is played on a Saturday, but one option would be to also move the semi-finals from their current midweek slot.

“There are some ideas about that because then China is not asleep because it’s Saturday and they can watch,” Ceferin said. “But there are many problems concerning that with the calendar of the leagues. National leagues are too important. You have the Premier League which is very strong. It’s an idea that came out (semifinals at the weekend) but it’s too early to say anything concrete on it.”

Ceferin has said he may look again at a recent deal concluded between the European Clubs Association and Uefa over revenue distribution from the Champions League but most believe he is unlikely to unpick it. He said it was important to look at innovating while continuing to protect what he called “the best sporting product in the world”.

The Uefa president said he was awaiting a "proper analysis" of the plan of his Fifa counterpart, Gianni Infantino, to expand the World Cup to 40 or 48 teams but would defend the ratio of places awarded to European teams. Thirteen teams now qualify for the World Cup from the 55-nation Uefa region and Ceferin believes that "fans in North America and Asia prefer to watch our teams".

“If you put it to a vote we might lose but we are the strongest confederation, nobody should forget that strongest in quality and all other aspects,” Ceferin said. “We have the best national teams. So I doubt they will outvote us.”

(Guardian service)