AEK stadium used for recent Greece game against the Boys in Green named as Europa Conference League final venue

Republic of Ireland supporters who travelled to Athens recently may be surprised to hear that UEFA have awarded the AEK Athens Agia Sofia Stadium (Opap Arena) the 2024 Europa Conference League Final.

Ireland fans had difficulties at the stadium which hosted the EURO 2024 qualifier against Greece that Stephen Kenny's side lost 2-1.

The FAI issuing a statement after the game noting they were ’aware of the issues facing Ireland fans entering the stadium’ ahead of match:

‘The FAI is reviewing those access issues with the Greek Federation and UEFA, as the safety of our fans will always be of the utmost importance.’

When explaining their decision to award the final to the stadium, UEFA noted that:

‘Concerning Athens, as the stadium is brand new and never operated by the club in an international context, UEFA will provide expertise and an observation period until November 2023 at matches played by AEK Athens FC in the UEFA club competition for which they will qualify and by the Greek national team in the EURO 2024 qualifiers has been added as a condition for the confirmation of the appointment, which would happen in December.’

Additionally, UEFA confirmed that WKS Śląsk Wrocław’s stadium will host the final in 2025 and that the competition will be known as the Conference League from the end of this season.

On the rebranding of the UEFA Europa Conference League to UEFA Conference League for the 2024/25 season, UEFA stated:

‘Research amongst fans as well as commercial partners has found that removing ‘Europa’ from the name of the competition will enable further development as a stand-alone competition.

Together with the UEFA Europa League, the UEFA Conference League will continue to deliver ‘Thursday Night Football’ to fans across Europe and beyond.

A strong link between the competitions will remain in place as both brand identities will remain very close, and both competitions will continue to be sold to broadcast partners and sponsors together.

The UEFA Executive Committee also awarded the Women’s Champions League Final in 2025 to the Estádio José Alvalade in Lisbon – the home to Sporting Clube de Portugal.

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— Extratime.com (@ExtratimeNews) June 28, 2023