Featured image credit: Tranquill Komnin/CC BY-SA 4.0/Edited for size
UEFA, football’s European governing body, has announced that the Greek capital of Athens and Wrocław in Poland will host the next two editions of the Europa Conference League final.
The 2024 final will take place at OPAP Arena, the new home of AEK Athens which opened in October. The stadium has a capacity of around 32,000 and was built on the site of AEK’s former home, Nikos Goumas Stadium.
As the stadium is new and has not yet hosted international club football, UEFA will provide expertise and an observation period until November 2023 at matches played by AEK Athens in UEFA club competitions, and at matches played by the Greek national team. This has been added as a condition for the confirmation of the appointment, which would happen in December.
The 2025 final will take place at Stadion Wrocław, home of Ekstraklasa club Śląsk Wrocław. The stadium has a capacity of 45,000 and was a host venue during Euro 2012, which Poland co-hosted with Ukraine.
The 2023 Europa Conference League final took place at Prague’s Fortuna Arena, with West Ham United defeating Fiorentina 2-1 to lift the trophy.
UEFA has also confirmed that the Europa Conference League will be rebranded as the Conference League from the start of the 2024-25 season. The competition was introduced at the start of the 2021-22 season, and UEFA said that research among fans and commercial partners has found that removing ‘Europa’ from the name will enable its further development as a standalone tournament.
In other news, UEFA has announced that Lisbon’s Estádio José Alavalade, home of Sporting Clube de Portugal, will host the 2025 Women’s Champions League final. The stadium has a capacity of 50,000.
UEFA had already awarded Bilbao’s San Mamés hosting rights for the 2024 Women’s Champions League final as an act of compensation after the stadium was forced to withdraw from hosting matches at Euro 2020. San Mamés will also host the 2025 Europa League final.
This year’s Women’s Champions League final took place at Philips Stadion, home of Dutch Eredivisie club PSV Eindhoven. Barcelona defeated VfL Wolfsburg 3-2 in the final.
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