Uefa has confirmed that Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium will host the 2016-17 Champions League final.

The governing body announced on Tuesday morning that the showpiece event will be played in Wales for the first time in 2017. The Millennium Stadium had been the favourite to be awarded the match, and the decision was ratified at Uefa’s executive committee meeting in Prague.

The 2016-17 Europa League final will be held at the Friends Arena in Stockholm, while the National Arena Filip II in Skopje, Macedonia, will hold the 2017 Uefa Super Cup final.

Gareth Bale said that the presence of the Champions League final in Cardiff would increase the stock of a buoyant Welsh game. “These are exciting times for Welsh football,” , the Real Madrid and Wales forward said. “It feels like the whole country is behind us as we attempt to reach next year’s Uefa Euro 2016 finals in France.

“I know how passionate the Welsh football fans are so it’s great the Uefa Champions League final is coming to my home city of Cardiff. I loved playing in the Uefa Super Cup last year and it would be fantastic to be involved in front of a packed crowd at such an iconic stadium in 2017.”

Cardiff’s second-biggest stadium, Cardiff City Stadium, hosted the 2014 Uefa Super Cup, in which Real Madrid defeated Sevilla 2-0. The Millennium Stadium had bid to host matches at the Europe-wide Euro 2020 tournament but Hampden Park in Glasgow defeated it by one vote.

 

theguardian.com

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