Finally, Chelsea and Man City get a new venue for the Champions League final showdown

Reports reaching National Daily can confirm that the European soccer’s governing body, UEFA, has finally cleared the last hurdles to shifting the game from its scheduled site in Turkey on Wednesday.

The development was confirmed on Thursday after the decision to move the final from Istanbul to Portugal for the second year in a row.was reached.

National Daily can recall that Istanbul recently re-entered a virus-related lockdown which led to the discussions between European soccer leaders and British government officials, who had mounted an eventual failed agreement to bring the final to Wembley in order to allow the teams and their local fans to avoid travelling to Istanbul.

National Daily can thus confirm that this month’s all-English Champions League final between Manchester City and Chelsea will be played in Porto, Portugal, a shift of one of soccer’s showcase events to one of the few countries where Britons can travel without restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic.

The final, which will be played May 29 at the Estádio Dragão in the coastal city of Porto, is the biggest day on the European club soccer calendar.

The game will be played with Estádio Dragão’s capacity of about 50,000 reduced to less than half that figure. City and Chelsea are expected to receive 6,000 tickets for their fans, figures that mirrored the allotments in Turkey.

It had been scheduled to be played at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul, but that would have ruled out attendance for most British fans of the finalists, since Turkey is on a so-called red list of countries to which travel is discouraged.

Sadly, holding the game in Turkey also raised the prospect that players and officials from both teams would have to quarantine for as long as 10 days upon their return to England. A development that would have complicated the preparations of a handful of national teams for this summer’s European Championship, which begins June 11.

Discussions about a move were completed quickly. Last Friday, after City and Chelsea had confirmed the all-English final and as talk swirled about a change of venue, Tiago Craveiro, the chief executive of the Portuguese soccer federation, reached out to UEFA.

Meanwhile, National Daily can further reveal that Istanbul which lost out for the second straight year are being sympathetically under the UEFA consideration to host the 2023 Champions League final to coincide with Turkish republic centenary.