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Cardiff to host 2017 Champions League final

June 30, 2015 16:52 IST

The Millennium Stadium, in Cardiff

Liverpool’s Michael Owen scores during the AXA sponsored 2001 FA Cup final against Arsenal at the Millennium Stadium, in Cardiff. Photograph: Ben Radford/ALLSPORT/Getty Images

The Millennium Stadium in Cardiff will host the 2017 Champions League final, UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino said on Tuesday.

The Friends Arena in Stockholm will be the venue for the 2017 Europa League final.

It will be the first final of UEFA's flagship competition to be held in Wales, but the 12th time it will be staged in the British Isles, with seven previous finals at Wembley, three in Glasgow and one in Manchester.

The Millennium Stadium, which is owned by the Welsh Rugby Union, opened in 1999 and staged the English FA Cup finals from 2001 until 2006 while Wembley was being rebuilt.

It has a capacity of 74,500 and staged soccer matches during the Olympic Games in 2012.

It will be the second major UEFA showpiece staged in the Welsh capital after the Cardiff City Stadium provided the venue for the European Supercup match between Real Madrid and Sevilla at the start of last season.

The Friends Arena in Stockholm opened in 2012 and the Europa League final will be the first UEFA club competition final to be staged in Sweden, which hosted the 1992 European Championship.

UEFA also announced that the 2017 Supercup match, the European club season curtain-raiser between the winners of the Champions League and Europa League will be staged in Skopje in Macedonia.

The venue for the 2016 Champions League final is the San Siro in Milan and the Europa League final will be at St Jakob Park in Basel.

Source: REUTERS
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