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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
Simon Collings

FA bid to host Champions League final in 2023 to mark 100 years since Wembley opened

The FA have bid for Wembley Stadium to host the Champions League Final in 2023, the centenary year of the opening of the original Wembley.

The deadline for bids was July 1, with all entries having to be submitted to Uefa by then, and the FA has put forward their proposal.

Bidders will be announced in due course, with the final decision over who shall host the final in 2023 to be made on September 24 in Ljubljana, Slovenia, when Uefa’s Executive Committee will meet to vote.

Wembley Stadium has experience of hosting the Champions League final, having done so in 2011 and 2013.

If the FA were to be successful in their bid to host the Champions League final in four years’ time it would be a fitting way of marking the centenary of the opening of the original Wembley in 1923.

Wembley last hosted the Champions League Final in 2013. (Getty Images)

The FA’s bid has been backed by the Mayor of London with a spokesperson for Sadiq Khan telling Standard Sport: “London is the sporting capital of the world and the Mayor wants to bring the biggest and the best events to the city.

“He is proud to support the FA’s bid for Wembley to host the final of the 2023 Uefa Champions League.

“It would have been 10 years since London last hosted the Champions League final and in 2023 we will celebrate the centenary of the opening of the original Wembley Stadium.

“Wembley will host the final of the men’s Euro 2020 and Women’s Euro 2021, and so bringing the biggest club game in world football back to London would make this a great period for sport in the capital."

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