By The much anticipated all-English Champions League final between Manchester City and Chelsea will now played in Istanbul instead of Porto as initially scheduled.
UEFA announced on Thursday that the match scheduled to hold on May 29 has been switched to allow English spectators attend as travel between the UK and Turkey is suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic, AFP reported.
“We accept that the decision of the British Government to place Turkey on the red list for travel was taken in good faith and in the best interests of protecting its citizens from the spread of the virus but it also presented us with a major challenge in staging a final featuring two English teams,” UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin said in a statement.
“After the year that fans have endured, it is not right that they don’t have the chance to watch their teams in the biggest game of the season,” he added.
Earlier this week, newspaper reports claimed the match would be played at London’s Wembley Stadium.
“The difficulties of moving the final are great and the FA and the authorities made every effort to try to stage the match in England and I would like to thank them for their work in trying to make it happen,” Ceferin said.
