The Champions League final between Manchester City and Chelsea will be played at Porto's Estadio do Dragão on May 29, instead of Istanbul's Atatürk Olympic Stadium, to allow 6,000 fans from each team to attend, UEFA announced today.
UEFA explained that holding the final in Turkey would have meant that none of the clubs' domestic supporters would have been able to travel to the match, and that after a year without fans being able to attend the stadiums, it felt "that every effort should be made to ensure that supporters of the two finalist teams could attend."
The #UCLfinal between Manchester City and Chelsea will now be held at the Estádio do Dragão in Porto.
6,000 fans of each team will be able to attend.Full story: ⬇️
— UEFA (@UEFA) May 13, 2021
Will There Be Fans At The Champions League Final?
UEFA states that stadium capacity for the match will be finalized and confirmed in due course. However, fans of Manchester City and Chelsea will be able to buy tickets through their clubs in the usual way, with 6,000 per club going on sale as soon as possible. The window for ticket sales to the general public will open on May 24, 2021 at 14:00 CEST.
Fans from the UK will be able to travel to Portugal for the game and return without having to quarantine. They will have to take a Covid PCR test within two days of their arrival in the UK, but this is a much simpler process compared to the rules applied to other destinations. On the other hand, Americans are not allowed to travel to Portugal for non-essential purposes until further notice.
London was initially discussed as a solution for the 2021 final, considering that both clubs are English and that the country will partially reopen its stadium's stands to spectators for the last two Premier League matchdays this month.
Uefa claims it's doing #cfc and #mcfc fans a favour by moving #UCLfinal from Covid-hit Istanbul. If it truly cared about fans it would have moved final to Wembley. Or acted quicker. Cost of UK/Porto flights rising all week, now £600+ return & rising faster, plus accommodation etc
— Henry Winter (@henrywinter) May 12, 2021
In Portugal, the matches of the last day of the Primeira Liga, scheduled for May 19, will be able to host a limited number of spectators in stadiums to test the effect of the return of the public, the organizers of the Portuguese championship announced on Wednesday.
