Bernabeu issue, Dortmund at a disadvantage! Munich could be awarded the next Champions League final in UEFA's complicated search

Just a year has passed since Paris Saint-Germain tore Inter Milan apart 5-0 at Munich’s Allianz Arena and won the Champions League for the first time. Less than two years from now, the final of Europe’s top club competition is expected to return to Munich. The Allianz Arena is the only official bidder to host it in 2028.

UEFA’s Executive Committee will announce the final decision in September. Barring a surprise, Munich will land the final for the sixth time overall. It was staged three times at the Olympiastadion, while the Allianz Arena then hosted the legendary "Finale dahoam" in 2012, when Bayern Munich lost to Chelsea in a penalty shootout, and then the 2025 edition. So why should Munich get the nod again so soon?

Only a handful of stadiums in Europe currently offer ideal conditions for Champions League finals. That is why the Allianz Arena is not the only ground to have become something of a UEFA living room. The 2027 final will be held at Madrid’s Metropolitano, which also staged it in 2019. London’s Wembley has hosted it three times in the past 15 years and is now also bidding for 2029.

Barcelona and London want the 2029 final

UEFA’s basic requirements for hosting a Champions League final are natural grass, pitch dimensions of 105 by 68 metres and a capacity of 70,000. However, UEFA allows a tolerance margin of ten per cent on capacity, so 63,000 seats is the absolute minimum. At present, that applies to 22 football stadiums in Europe. Because of the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, staging it in St Petersburg, Moscow or Kyiv is out of the question. That leaves 19.

Europe’s biggest stadium is Camp Nou in Barcelona. Lengthy reconstruction work, delays and the uncertainty that comes with them kept it out of the running in the recent past. Now, though, the new Camp Nou is close to completion and, alongside ever-present Wembley, is one of the two candidates for the 2029 final, which will also be awarded this September.

Arguably Europe’s most famous stadium, and since its rebuild also its most modern, is Real Madrid’s Bernabeu. The fact it has not been used as a final venue since 2010 is likely also linked to the long-running feud between Real president Florentino Perez and UEFA. Keyword: Super League. On top of that, with the Metropolitano there is an alternative within the city that apparently suits UEFA better.

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Dortmund are apparently considering a bid from 2029

Milan’s San Siro is considered outdated and is set to be replaced before long by a new-build stadium. Although they have also occasionally served as venues in the recent past, the venerable old Olympic stadiums in Rome, Athens and Istanbul, with their running tracks and lack of amenities, are really no longer up to date.

Other important criteria, even if UEFA do not define them precisely, are the city’s infrastructure, proximity to a major airport, the number of hotel beds in the city, especially in the luxury segment, and the number of boxes in the stadium. On that front, Manchester’s Old Trafford, Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium, Marseille’s Velodrome, Baku’s National Stadium, Seville’s La Cartuja and Dortmund’s Signal Iduna Park are regarded as less than ideal. Even so, according to a report by Sport Bild, Dortmund are seeking to host a Champions League final for the first time from 2029 onwards.

Ultimately, among venues with ideal conditions, besides the Allianz Arena, Wembley, the Metropolitano and Budapest’s Puskas Arena, host venue in 2026, there are only the Stade de France, most recently hosted in 2022, Lisbon’s Estadio da Luz, in 2020, and Berlin’s Olympiastadion, in 2015. However, in Berlin too, a running track surrounds the pitch.

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