European soccer’s governing body UEFA has awarded hosting rights for its 2025 Women’s Champions League (UWCL) final to Lisbon, Portugal.
The match will be played at the Estádio José Alvalade, home to top-tier Primera Liga’s Sporting Clube, which has a capacity of 50,000. The venue previously staged the 2005 UEFA Cup final after being renovated ahead of hosting matches for the 2004 men's European Championships.
Go deeper with GlobalData
The 2024 UWCL final will be staged in Bilbao (Spain), respectively, while this year's took place in Eindhoven (the Netherlands).
The announcement came as part of a flurry of decisions announced by UEFA during an executive committee meeting at the organization’s headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.
It confirmed a change to the Club Licensing and Financial Sustainability Regulations from July 1 that will see the repayment of a player’s registration and transfer fee limited to five years “to ensure equal treatment of all clubs and improve financial stability.”
The decision comes after English Premier League club Chelsea awarded eight-year contracts to multiple players signed in the January transfer window, potentially in a bid to meet spending rules by spreading the cost over a longer period.
How well do you really know your competitors?
Access the most comprehensive Company Profiles on the market, powered by GlobalData. Save hours of research. Gain competitive edge.
Thank you!
Your download email will arrive shortly
Not ready to buy yet? Download a free sample
We are confident about the unique quality of our Company Profiles. However, we want you to make the most beneficial decision for your business, so we offer a free sample that you can download by submitting the below form
By GlobalDataThe new rule will not affect contracts that have already been signed.
The men’s third-tier Europa Conference League, meanwhile, will be renamed the UEFA Conference League from the start of the 2024-25 season, with hosting rights to the competition’s finals in 2024 and 2025 handed to Athens (Greece) and Wroclaw (Poland), respectively.
The 2024 final will be held at the Agia Sofia Stadium, the 31,000-seat stadium that opened in 2021. It is home to domestic club AEK and has never staged an international game. UEFA said the venue's event-staging hinges on the Greek national team playing matches there, and it will be confirmed as the final destination in December if all goes well.
The 45,000-seat Wroclaw Stadion, meanwhile, was built ahead of staging matches during the 2012 European Championships and is home to Śląsk Wroclaw.
Poland was also announced as the host of the 2024 European Women’s Under-19 Championship.
UEFA also finalized a new format for the 16 European teams looking to qualify for the expanded 48-team men’s FIFA 2026 World Cup in the US, Canada, and Mexico.
Europe’s qualification path will be split into two stages – a group stage featuring 12 groups of four or five teams, with the 12 group winners qualifying automatically for the tournament.
The runners-up of the 12 groups will enter a play-off stage with four best-ranked group winners from the 2024-25 UEFA Nations League competition. The matches will be played as single-leg semi-finals and a final to decide the four remaining teams.
The next meeting of the UEFA executive committee is scheduled for September 16 in Limassol, Cyprus.
