OK. UEFA has announced that Schalke 04 will host the 2004 Champions League final. (Don't know if that's been posted here yet, but it is now.) I notice that Schalke is in seventh place in the Bundesliga, well behind (like everyone else is) Bayern Munich. My question is this: If it looked like Schalke had been in the running to win this year's Bundesliga, would they even be in contention to host the Champions League final? Is UEFA determined to have a neutral site for the final at all costs? Thanks in advance for your answers.
Well, this year's final is at Old Trafford. That alone should answer your question. PAST VENUES SINCE FORMATION OF CHAMPIONS' LEAGUE: 2002- Glasgow (will always be a neutral site ) 2001- Milan 2000- St Denis, France (always neutral) 1999- Barcelona 1998- Amsterdam (?) 1997- Munich 1996- Rome 1995- Vienna (always...) 1994- Athens (always...) 1993- Munich 1992- London/Wembley Think the Bernabeu will ever host a final again? ('57, '69, '80)
I'm convinced it will never be at the Bernabeu during our lifetimes. All the other teams would file a protest claiming Real bought off UEFA.
I think it mas more to do with the fact that they want to show off the place that they built in Gelsenkirchen for WC '06. Supposedly the brand-new Arena auf Schalke is one of the highest rated stadia in Europe.
I really didn't understand what he was b!tching about. If he was really confident about his team's abilities, he would have said "It doesn't matter where we play Real, we can beat them anywhere." Instead he was implicitly saying, "We only want Real in the final... at Old Trafford."
As soon as the 2nd phase ended and the group winners and runners-up were known, everyone already knew the matchup would be Real-ManU because of UEFA's system of matching up sides for the 1/4-finals.
LoL. yeah it accidentally showed up instead of my reciept with a N. Korea jersey i bought. If someone at UEFA has access to my credit card number i'm going to be really angry.
someone already mentioned it's because it is the first big time stadium to be done for WC06, and its time to do a little showcasing.