UEFA awards 2027 final to Metropolitano, defers overseas matches

UEFA’s executive committee on Thursday in Tirana awarded the 2027 UEFA Men’s Champions League final to Madrid’s Estadio Metropolitano while postponing a decision on high-profile requests from LaLiga and Serie A to stage domestic league games abroad. The committee met to allocate venues for several 2026 and 2027 finals and to consider proposals to move Villarreal v Barcelona to Miami in December and AC Milan v Como to Perth in February.

UEFA announced that the Metropolitano, home of Atletico Madrid and host of the 2019 final, will stage the 2027 Champions League showpiece. The decision follows the withdrawal of Milan’s San Siro after local authorities were unable to guarantee that planned refurbishment and surrounding works would not be under way at the time of the event, officials said. Milan and Inter remain embroiled with the city over redevelopment plans for the San Siro site, complicating the stadium’s availability.

The executive committee did not, however, grant the two requests to play regular-season European league matches outside their home territories. UEFA said it would undertake a round of consultation with “all stakeholders in European football including fans” before...