Executive Committee decides hosts for 2015 finals
Donnerstag, 23. Mai 2013
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The Olympiastadion in Berlin and the National Stadium Warsaw will stage the 2014/15 finals of the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League, respectively.
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The 2014/15 UEFA Champions League final will be staged at Berlin's Olympiastadion, while the National Stadium Warsaw will hold the 2014/15 UEFA Europa League showpiece.
The decision on the hosts of the major European club competition finals in two years' time was announced by the UEFA Executive Committee at its meeting in London on Thursday.
Originally opened in 1936 for that year's Olympic Games, the Olympiastadion, situated in eastern Berlin, has been the home ground of Hertha BSC Berlin since 1963. It staged three matches at the 1974 FIFA World Cup and six when the global final tournament returned to Germany in 2006, including the final between France and Italy.
The stadium, which underwent four years of renovation ahead of the 2006 World Cup, has hosted every German Cup final since 1985. Next season it will also stage Bundesliga football again after Hertha won the second-tier title this month. With a capacity of just over 74,000, the Olympiastadion also hosts other big events, including music concerts.
The same can be said of the National Stadium Warsaw, though it is perhaps most widely known as the venue for the opening game of UEFA EURO 2012. Located on the eastern banks of the Vistula in the district of Praga Poludnie, the venue lies on the site of the old Tenth Anniversary Stadium, which, partly constructed using rubble collected from the site of the Warsaw Uprising, had stood since 1955.
Primarily a football stadium, it also hosted athletics and cycling, and, in 1983, Pope John Paul II gave mass to a congregation of 100,000. It held its last international that year, but then fell into disrepair, and since 1989 it had been home to a bazaar. Following its reconstruction for UEFA EURO 2012, the stadium, which has a retractable roof, reopened in January 2012.
With a 57,000 capacity, it staged five matches at last summer's UEFA European Championship – three group matches, the quarter-final between Portugal and Czech Republic, and the semi-final between Germany and Italy.
The Estádio do Sport Lisboa e Benfica in Lisbon, Portugal, will hold the 2014 UEFA Champions League final, while Juventus Stadium in Turin, Italy, will stage the 2014 UEFA Europa League showpiece.