Berlin, Warsaw to stage European finals

LONDON - Reuters

German football club Hertha Berlin plays its home games at the Olympic Stadium, which will be home to the 2015 UEFA Champions League final. AFP photo

Berlin will stage the Champions League final for the first time in 2015 and Warsaw will be the venue for the Europa League final, UEFA said yesterday.

“Two beautiful venues for our finals for 2015,” UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino told a news conference, launching the venues for Europe’s two club competitions.

The timing could not have been better as far as Germany is concerned with an all-German Champions League final between Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund set for Wembley tomorrow.

The 2015 match, at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium, will be the first European final in the German capital which hosted the Olympic Games in 1936 and the 2006 World Cup final.

Gelsenkirchen, Munich previous host cities

Two German cities have previously been used as the venues for the Champions League final with Munich hosting it three times in 1993, 1997 and 2012 and Gelsenkirchen staging the 2004 final.

Dortmund and Hamburg have hosted the UEFA Cup, now the Europa League, final since it was switched to a single-match final in 1998.

Poland, which co-hosted Euro 2012 with Ukraine, has never staged a major European final, but Warsaw’s refurbished National Stadium staged the opening match of last year’s European Championship between Poland and Greece.

It also hosted the semifinal in which Italy beat Germany 2-1.

UEFA last year awarded the 2014 Champions League final to Lisbon and the Europa League final to Turin.