By Adedapo Adesanya
The plan to host the Champions League final between Chelsea and Manchester City in Wembley, England, has been dealt a huge blow as Estadio do Dragao in Portugal has been selected by the Union of European Football Association (UEFA) instead.
There had been plans to move the final to the stadium located in the English capital, London as the European football governing body had held talks with the United Kingdom government, but there was a considerable sticking point over waiving quarantine rules for the 2,000 staff, sponsors, VIPs and foreign media.
The fixture was due to take place at the Ataturk Stadium in Istanbul on May 29, but pressure mounted for the venue to be changed after the UK government placed Turkey on its red list of at-risk countries and urged fans not to travel for the fixture and Business Post had reported that the body was mulling the idea of moving the venue, with Wembley being the one highly considered.
Now, UEFA is in talks with the Portuguese government to allow 20,000 to attend the final, about 30 per cent capacity at the 50,000-seater stadium where Porto FC plays its matches, and that would mean up to 6,000 tickets for fans of each club.
Portugal is on the government green list so fans and visitors from the UK will be able to travel there from Sunday and they will not need to quarantine but they will have to take COVID-19 tests before and after they travel.
It would have been cheaper and easier for UEFA to host the game at Wembley which already has the infrastructure set up to be a UEFA European Championship venue next month but the governing body felt it could not do so without the guarantee of government waivers.
This will be the third final in Portugal in eight years but the first in Porto.
Modupe Gbadeyanka 
Dipo Olowookere