Champions League final moved from St Petersburg to Paris

By Ben Browning

Published: February 25, 2022 9:49 am

Last Updated: February 25, 2022 9:49 am

The Champions League final has been moved from St Petersburg to Paris and the Stade de France in a decision expected to be ratified on Friday morning.

UEFA are due to have an emergency meeting on Friday morning, where the decision to move the event is set to be confirmed, according to Rob Harris.

Champions League final will be moved from St Petersburg to Paris, as @RobHarris reports. 🏆🇫🇷 #UCL pic.twitter.com/h0Vb3Ko7cG
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) February 25, 2022

This comes as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began in the early hours of Thursday morning.

A statement was made by UEFA on Thursday, condemning the violence and saying:

‘UEFA shares the international community’s significant concern for the security situation developing in Europe and strongly condemns the ongoing Russian military invasion in Ukraine’, they wrote.

‘As the governing body of European football, UEFA is working tirelessly to develop and promote football according to common European values such as peace and respect for human rights, in the spirit of the Olympic Charter. We remain resolute in our solidarity with the football community in Ukraine and stand ready to extend our hand to the Ukrainian people.’

‘We are dealing with this situation with the utmost seriousness and urgency. Decisions will be taken by the UEFA Executive Committee and announced tomorrow.’

What else could happen?

There is an expectation that future talks will centre around the potential future of the key sponsor Gazprom, the Russian oil company that currently are the main sponsors of UEFA’s Champions League.

Schalke 04 have already removed the sponsors from their shirt, and will instead simply show the team name in its place.

ℹ️ Following recent developments, FC Schalke 04 have decided to remove the logo of main sponsor GAZPROM from the club’s shirts. It will be replaced by lettering reading ‘Schalke 04’ instead.#S04 pic.twitter.com/9kpJLRzTQ7
— FC Schalke 04 (@s04_en) February 24, 2022