UEFA start discussions to move Champions League final venue

The Champions League final could be moved for a fourth year in-a-row after UEFA opened talks with a new venue, over fears about it being hosted in Istanbul.

Inter Milan took a giant step towards the final on June 10th on Wednesday night, when they defeated local rivals AC Milan 2-0 and were unlucky not to win by more.

On the other side of the draw Real Madrid and Manchester City fought a brilliant 1-1 draw, with Kevin de Bruyne and Vinicius Junior both scoring sensational goals.

But right now, those teams don't know if they'll actually be travelling to Turkey to play at the Ataturk Stadium, where the game is meant to take place.

Istanbul was meant to host the final in both 2020 and 2021 and on those occasions it was moved due to Covid issues, with Portugal hosting both in the end.

Last year, the original plan was to host it in St Petersburg but Russia's invasion of Ukraine led to them being banned from UEFA competitions and the organisation moved the final to Paris, which was nearly a disaster.

This year the issue comes down to the potential political unrest in Turkey, if President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s nine year spell in the role comes to an end during the election later this month.

Whilst there is desire to keep the final at the Ataturk, the Daily Mail have claimed that talks have already begun with the Portuguese FA, with Lisbon the proposed venue if things need to be changed.

The 76,000 Ataturk Stadium is hosting the Champions League. Image: Alamy

Sunday will be the first round of voting in the Presidential elections, and a poll earlier in the week said that Erdogan was 5% behind main challenger main challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu.

It is suggested that the three horse race will likely go down to a second round of voting between the two main challengers on May 28th.

The game would only be a couple of weeks later so UEFA would have to wait to see whether or not there is any issues in the country, before making a late decision.

The next two seasons of finals have already been decided as well, with Wembley set to host once again in 2024, having held the 2011 and 2013 finals.

After that Munich's Allianz Arena will be hosting in 2025, a year after Germany hosts next summer's Euros and Allianz will host a number of games.

That could mean Istanbul having to wait until 2026, six years after it was initially meant to see the final.