Euro Sport News for Greece

[plato-ny]

Finals awarded to Paris and Athens
Tuesday, 19 April 2005

The UEFA Champions League finals in 2006 and 2007 will be played in Paris and Athens respectively, after UEFA awarded hosting rights to the Stade de France and the Greek capital's Olympic Stadium. The decision was taken by UEFA's Executive Committee at its meeting in Tallinn, Estonia on Tuesday.


Paris match

The Stade de France staged the 2000 Champions League final between Real Madrid CF and Valencia CF, and the climax of UEFA's blue-riband club tournament will now return to that arena after a six-year gap. It also gives UEFA the opportunity to create a link back to the first European Champion

Athens return

Athens's Olympic Stadium will host its first European final since the venue was rebuilt to hold the 2004 Olympic Games. The Greek city previously provided the backdrop to the Champions League showpiece of 1994, when AC Milan and FC Barcelona met at the OAKA Spiros Louis stadium.

Eindhoven honour

Meanwhile, the hosting rights to the UEFA Cup finals in the 2005/06 and 2006/07 campaigns were also awarded. The Philips Stadium in Eindhoven will be the scene of next season's final of UEFA's second major club competition - with the venue's name changing for the event.

Hampden spectacle

Then Hampden Park, Glasgow, which staged the 2002 Champions League final, will see another European football spectacular with the UEFA Cup in 2007.

Merits considered

UEFA decided on Paris and Athens after considering their merits in terms of capacity, stadium infrastructure and dossiers including city and airport agreements and promotional plans. UEFA has also conducted a variety of site visits.

Other Paris finals

The Parc des Princes, now home of Paris Saint-Germain FC, hosted the 1956, 1975 and 1981 Champions' Cup finals. The 1978 and 1995 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup showpieces, along with the 1998 UEFA Cup final, were also played there.

Athens events

Previous to 1994, Athens also saw the Champions' Cup lifted at the Olympic Stadium - or Spiros Louis stadium - in 1983, the year after it was first inaugurated. On that occasion, Hamburger SV beat Juventus FC 1-0. The ground, which also staged the 1987 Cup Winners' Cup final, was then renovated for the 2004 Olympics. (I'm adding this-Greece also hosted the Cup Winners Cup in 1971 and 1973. Look Below:


19.05.71 Real Madrid CF 1-1* Chelsea FC
Karaiskakis stadium, Piraeus (Athens) (42,000)

Replay: 21.05.71 Real Madrid CF 1-2 Chelsea FC
Karaiskakis stadium, Piraeus (Athens) (42,000)


16.05.73 AC Milan 1-0 Leeds United AFC
Kaftantzoglio stadium, Thessaloniki (40,154)
Hristos MICHAS - Greek Referee

This will be our third time hosting a Champions Cup and including hosting three Cup Winners Cup, that will be six altogether).

Stadium capacities

The Stade de France has a capacity of 80,000, while the Athens Olympic Stadium holds 72,000 people, although for the Olympic football tournament last summer, that number was reduced to 58,800.

First major final

PSV Eindhoven's Philips stadium - which has a capacity of over 35,000 - has never hosted a major one-off club final, but did stage the second leg of the 1978 UEFA Cup final when PSV defeated SC Bastia 3-0 to claim the trophy. Two other Dutch cities, Amsterdam and Rotterdam, have hosted 12 European club finals between them.

National stadium

For Hampden Park, Scotland's national stadium and home of Queen's Park FC, this will be the first UEFA Cup showpiece. The Glasgow ground - whose capacity is 52,000 - staged the 1960, 1976 and 2002 Champions' Cup finals as well as the Cup Winners' Cup finals in 1962 and 1966.

ALSO

EURO qualifying format decided
Tuesday, 19 April 2005
The winners and runners-up in the seven qualifying groups will go through to the UEFA EURO 2008â„¢ final round in Austria and Switzerland in three years' time.

Decided today

The qualifying-round format was decided by UEFA's Executive Committee at its meeting in Tallinn, Estonia on Tuesday. The qualifying phase for EURO 2008â„¢ consists of one group of eight teams and six groups of seven. The qualifying competition will begin in the autumn of 2006, after the FIFA World Cup in Germany that summer. Co-hosts Austria and Switzerland will qualify automatically.

2004 format

The format for UEFA EURO 2004â„¢ in Portugal involved ten group winners qualifying for the final tournament, along with the host country and the winners of five qualifying play-offs staged over two legs on a home-and-away basis. This time around, no qualifying play-offs will be staged, UEFA decided on Tuesday.

[PAO_HELLAS]

I wanted too to post the new .

Finally I will have the chance to go easily at a Champions Leauge final. Previous time it happened here again I was 6 years old .

[PAO_HELLAS]

Congratulations letter from UEFA

The UEFA Chief Exedutive, Lars-Christer Olsson, sent a letter today to the Hellenic Football Federation addressed to the HFF President, Vassilis Gagatsis, and HFF General Secretary, Dr. Ioannis Economides, in which he congratulates the Hellenic Football Federation on undertaking the 2006/07 Champions League final. The text as is:

«Dear Sirs,
I am pleased to confirm that the UEFA Executive Committee decided at its meeting of 19 April 2005 in Tallinn that the final of the 2006/07 UEFA Champions League will be played at Olympic stadium. The Hellenic Football Association will be responsible for organising the match.
The UEFA project team in charge of this final will contact you in due course and suggest dates for a meeting at our headquarters with representatives of your association, the stadium owner and TEAM AG, in order to set up an action list and a meeting schedule for the organisation of this final.
On behalf of UEFA President Lennart Johansson and the UEFA Executive Committee, I congratulate your association on this important undertaking, and look forward to a fruitful working relationship.

Yours sincerely,
Lars-Christer Olsson
UEFA Chief Executive»

from epo.gr

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Greece will face Belgium in Brussels on August 17 in a friendly match...