Champions League: FA hopeful Wembley Stadium can still host final in centenary year
The Football Association is hopeful that Wembley could still stage the Champions League final in its centenary year in 2023 despite the reshuffle needed because of the coronavirus pandemic.
UEFA announced on Wednesday plans to finish this season’s tournament with the last-eight competition taking place entirely in Lisbon, Portugal.
Istanbul had been due to host the prestigious final but will now host the match in 2021, with UEFA announcing that the next three venues with deals agreed – St Petersburg, Munich and London – will all move back a year to leave Wembley with the final in 2024.
But FA chief executive Mark Bullingham said a deal could yet be reached to change the order again as they look to mark 100 years of the national stadium.
One possibility would be a swap with Munich after the FA provided strong support for Germany’s successful bid to host Euro 2024.
„That’s a possibility,“ said Bullingham. „What UEFA wanted to establish was that the Champions League final wasn’t going to take place in Istanbul this year and they agreed with everyone due to host finals that they’ll host one at some point in the future.
„We’ll continue to talk with UEFA and the other hosts on what would be best for us and for them and see where we get to on that.“
Bullingham revealed the FA expects to suffer a „massively significant“ loss in revenue of anywhere between £100m and £300m as a result of the pandemic, and has taken out additional borrowing to spread the costs over four years.
But he said it was the middle level of the game that was likely to suffer the most, with the top level self-sufficient and costs much reduced at the grassroots.
„The grassroots is impacted, but it is the middle part of the game that is impacted the most,“ he said.
„The top end of the game is fine because they’ve the broadcast money.
„The bottom end, the real grassroots, kids football, there are elements where we have supported them through things like the Pitch Preparation Fund with the Football Foundation and other initiatives, but they didn’t need a huge amount.
„It’s the middle level – the National League and the lower levels of the EFL who are not only struggling most but I think will also struggle hugely with any behind-closed-doors calendar as they will have outgoings without revenue.
„The government always made it very clear with any resumption of football they were relying on football to sort itself out and the Premier League is aware of that and is working out what that could look like. We are and will be part of those discussions.“
Soccer Accumulator Bonus
Our fantastic Euro Soccer accumulator offer gives you the chance to earn a bonus of up to 100% on accumulators on the top domestic leagues in Europe along with the group and knockout stages of the Champions League.
This offer applies to returns on pre-match accumulators of 3 or more selections on Full Time Result or Result/Both Teams To Score markets for the English Premier League, Italian Serie A, Spanish Primera Liga, German Bundesliga 1 or UEFA Champions League.
The maximum bonus that you can receive is ˆ100,000 or currency equivalent. The bonus will not apply where a stake has been fully Cashed Out. Where a stake has been partially Cashed Out, the bonus will be calculated based .on the remaining active stake. If a qualifying bet is edited .using our Edit Bet feature. The bonus will be calculated based on the new stake. Where a bet has been edited to include or amend a selection for an event that is In-Play, the bonus will no longer apply. Double Chance bets or combination bets with bonuses. Such as Lucky 15’s or Lucky .31’s do not apply for this offer.
If your bet is successful, we will add the following bonuses to your returns:
Bet Type Bonus
14-folds and upwards 100% bonus
Terms and Conditions
Applies to straight pre-match accumulator bets on the Full Time Result or Result/Both Teams To Score markets for UEFA Champions League, English Premier League, Italian Serie A, Spanish Primera Liga, German Bundesliga .1 or Australian A-League matches. Maximum bonus ˆ100,000 or currency equivalent. Soccer Accumulator Bonus does not apply to Double Chance bets or combination. bets with bonuses such as Lucky 15’s, Lucky 31’s etc.
If any selections are postponed/void then the bonus will still apply, but the percentage bonus added will reflect the actual number of winning selections. For example, an 8-fold accumulator with 7. winners and 1 postponed match will receive a 30% .bonus to returns.
The bonus part of your returns will be added to your account within 24 hours of your final selection having played.
This bonus will not apply where a stake has been fully Cashed Out. Where a stake has been partially Cashed Out, the bonus will be calculated based on the remaining active stake.
If a qualifying bet is edited using our Edit Bet feature, the bonus will be calculated based on the new stake. Where a bet has been edited to include or amend a selection for an event that is In-Play, the bonus will no longer apply.
Where any term of the offer or promotion is breached or there is any evidence of a series of bets placed by a customer or group of customers, which due to a deposit bonus, enhanced payments, free bets, risk free bets or any other promotional offer results in guaranteed customer profits irrespective of the outcome, whether individually or as part of a group, bet365 reserves the right to reclaim the bonus element of such offers and in their absolute discretion either settle bets at the correct odds, void the free and risk free. bets or void any bet funded by the deposit bonus.
In addition bet365 .reserve the right to levy an administration charge on the customer up to the value of the deposit bonus, free bet, risk free bet or additional payment to cover administrative costs. We further reserve the right to ask any customer to provide sufficient documentation for us to be satisfied in our absolute discretion as to the customer’s identity prior to us crediting any bonus, free bet, risk free bet or offer to their account.
All bet365 offers are intended for recreational players and bet365 may in its sole discretion limit the eligibility of customers to participate in all or part of any promotion.
.
