KYIV: European football’s governing body UEFA on Thursday announced Turkey’s capital city Istanbul as the venue of the 2020 Champions League final.
The home of the Turkish national team, the Atatürk Olimpiyat Stadı is the country’s largest stadium, and famously staged the 2005 UEFA Champions League final when Liverpool came from 3-0 down to beat AC Milan on penalties.
Named in honour of Kemal Atatürk, founder of the republic of Turkey, the venue was opened in 2002 and has held major athletics events – and a U2 concert – as well as being a home for Istanbul clubs Galatasaray (2003/04), İstanbul Başakşehir (2007–14) and Beşiktaş (2013–16). The Atatürk Olimpiyat Stadı is also one of the keystones of Turkey’s bid to host UEFA Euro 2024.
In its executive committee meeting here, UEFA also named the venues that will host the finals of its other club competitions in 2020:
Gdansk to host 2020 Europa League final
Porto to host 2020 UEFA Super Cup
Vienna to host 2020 women’s final
It also launched the Euro 2020 match schedule.
Amongst other decisions, the committee announced new rules and regulations of club licensing and financial fair play after conducting a complete and comprehensive review in consultation with national associations and all other stakeholders.
Clubs will have to be more transparent when it comes to publishing their financial data such as payments to agents and player transfers.
Besides this, UEFA seeked to provide better protection and education of youth players through the introduction of a child protection policy, new medical requirements and enhanced youth development programmes.
