Europe’s football governing body UEFA is considering holding the Champions League final in the United States in the future to take advantage of the growing interest in the sport there, according to UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin.
Ceferin hinted that a departure from precedent was possible as they discussed moving the pinnacle event in European club football away from the continent for the first time since the competition’s establishment in 1955.
“It’s possible. We started to discuss about that but then one year it was the World Cup, (20)24 is Euros, this year (the final) is in Istanbul, ’24 is in London and ’25 is in Munich and after that, let’s see,” Ceferin told the Men in Blazers podcast.
“Football is extremely popular in the United States these days… Americans are ready to pay for best and nothing for the less. So they will follow European football as basketball lovers in Europe follow the NBA.
“What shocked me (about the American audience) was that the European Championship finals was watched by more people in the United States than the NBA Finals… For 30 matches of the Euros, the viewership was like Super Bowl viewership.”
The average number of people in the United States who watched the Super Bowl this year was 113 million.
But Ceferin acknowledged the time difference was a concern, especially if games started at midnight in Europe since they were played in the afternoon on the Pacific coast.
The United States, Mexico, and Canada will all share hosting duties for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
In Lisbon earlier this month, the UEFA Ordinary Congress unanimously re-elected Slovenian lawyer Ceferin to remain as president for another four years, to 2027.
