Uefa may consider changing the way it chooses the venues for the Champions League and Uefa Cup finals, a source at Europe's governing body said yesterday. The venues are chosen up to two years in advance by Uefa's executive committee, which studies a shortlist of candidates.
The possibility of drawing up a permanent list of suitable stadiums that can be rotated for major European finals has been discussed within Uefa and by European politicians. One plan is for a venue to be chosen late in the season when the four semi-finalists are known.
A senior UEFA source said: "The system of awarding finals is being talked about as is the fact that sometimes they are awarded not necessarily for sporting reasons, but for geographical and political reasons.
"Three English clubs - Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea - reached the Champions League semi-finals and if two had got there they would have met in a 60,000-seater stadium in Athens, while Wembley Stadium would have been sitting there with 90,000 empty seats. It might be something that Uefa will have to address in the future."
Next season's Champions League final will be staged in Moscow with the 2009 showdown in Rome. The Uefa Cup final will be held at the City of Manchester Stadium next year and in Istanbul in 2009.
In the past, Uefa explained it chose the stadiums so far in advance to ensure contractual obligations for TV coverage, marketing and sponsorship could be completed in good time as well as for logistical planning in the host city.
Meanwhile, Uefa and the British government will set up a task force to investigate security problems at European soccer matches to avoid a repeat of the trouble at last month's Champions League final between AC Milan and Liverpool. Uefa president Michel Platini and British sports minister Richard Caborn held a meeting yesterday during which Uefa submitted a report into the trouble at last month's final.
"This not about laying blame, it's about how to stop this from happening again and so we have decided to set up a special working group, a task force, which will look at ways to achieve this," Caborn said in the presence of Platini.
Although the exact remit and brief of the committee, which includes representatives from other European countries, has yet to be decided, sources said it was expected to focus on stadium criteria and security - both inside and outside the ground.
