By Andrew Warshaw in Istanbul
March 21 – The 2014 Champions League final will be staged at the home of Benfica, one of the great evocative names of European football.
UEFA’s Executive Committee decided to take the showpiece fixture of their club calendar to Lisbon’s Estádio da Luz (pictured), which staged the 2004 European Championship final when Greece upset host nation Portugal to clinch the trophy.
The 2014 Europa League final will be held at the new Juventus stadium in Turin on the site of the club’s former Stadio delle Alpi home.
The announcements were originally due to be made at a news conference tomorrow following the two-day Executive Committee meeting that precedes the full 53-nation UEFA Congress, but were brought forward 24 hours.
Lisbon will thus stage the top European club showdown for the first time since 1967 when Celtic defeated Inter Milan in the Estadio Nacional in what was then the old European Cup.
UEFA’s Executive Committee also awarded the 2015 European Under-21 Championship to the Czech Republic while the 2016 European Futsal Championship finals go to Belgrade.
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