Barcelona's Camp Nou beats Wembley to host 2029 Champions League final. Munich confirmed for 2028

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Barcelona's Camp Nou beats Wembley to host 2029 Champions League final. Munich confirmed for 2028

2026-09-15 21:37 Last Updated At：21:40

GENEVA (AP) — Barcelona’s renovated Camp Nou was picked over Wembley Stadium in London to host the 2029 Champions League final, UEFA said Tuesday, in a further sign of their rebuilt relations after the divisive European Super League project.

The choice gives Barcelona a marquee game one year before Spain co-hosts the 2030 World Cup with Portugal and Morocco. Staging that final is a contest between Real Madrid’s renovated Santiago Bernabéu home and the 115,000-seat stadium being built in Casablanca.

UEFA’s executive committee also confirmed the 2028 Champions League final will return to Bayern Munich’s stadium, which was the only bidder, just three years after the 2025 edition.

Barcelona's victory comes seven months after its formal withdrawal from legal action against UEFA linked to the Super League driven by storied clubs led by Real Madrid that quickly failed in 2021.

The much-delayed rebuild of a 105,000-seat Camp Nou, which will be the biggest soccer stadium in Europe, is ongoing with the upper tier and roof still under construction.

“In addition to its size,” Barcelona said Tuesday in a statement, “it offers a hospitality and VIP experience that is unique in Europe, enabling new standards of service and comfort for guests and fans alike.”

The extra size also should allow more fans of the two finalist teams to get tickets. Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal each got allocated 17,200 tickets from the 61,400 available to buy for the Champions League final played in May at the Puskas Arena in Budapest.

Barcelona last hosted the Champions League final in 1999, when Manchester United’s two stoppage-time goals stunned a dominant Bayern team. Camp Nou also staged the 1989 European Cup final.

Wembley has hosted three times since Barcelona's last turn — in 2011, 2013 and 2024 — and eight times in total since the European Cup started 71 years ago.

This season's Champions League final goes to Madrid at Atletico's Metropolitano stadium.

Record eight-time Women’s Champions League winner Lyon will host the final in 2028.

UEFA also picked Cardiff for the 2029 women’s final in the city center national stadium that will host the opening game of the men’s 2028 European Championship.

UEFA also picked hosts for two editions of the second-tier Europa League: Romania’s national stadium in Bucharest in 2028 and in 2029 at the new Serbian national venue being built on the outskirts of Belgrade.

Serbian soccer has developed closer to ties to UEFA and will co-host the men's Under-21 Euros next year with Albania.

The decision Tuesday comes just nine days after players and fans from Belgrade's biggest clubs, Red Star and Partizan, paid tribute at a game in the city's current main soccer stadium to convicted war criminal Ratko Mladic who died last month in The Hague.

UEFA fined Red Star this month for fans chanting in honor of Mladic at a Europa League game on the day he died.

The Europa League final this season is at Eintracht Frankfurt’s Waldstadion home.

Turin will get the 2028 final of the third-tier men's club competition at Juventus’ 41,000-seat stadium. The 2029 final will be at the 67,000-seat Puskás Aréna in Budapest.

The success of the Conference League since launching in 2021 has seen its finals venues outgrow the 20,000-seat venues for the first two title matches held in Tirana, Albania and Czech capital Prague.

Juventus also is rewarded by UEFA after it pulled out of the Super League legal action in 2023.

Real Madrid was the last of the 12 Super League founders to drop the project and settled with UEFA in February. The Bernabéu, now with crowds of 78,000 for the biggest games, has hosted a European Cup or Champions League final four times though not since 2010.

See AP’s full soccer coverage here

Williams, Ramírez lead Guardians over White Sox 2-0 to cap comeback in five-game AL Division Series

CLEVELAND (AP) — Gavin Williams had 12 of a record 21 strikeouts by Cleveland pitchers, José Ramírez hit a go-ahead home run on a pitch just above home plate and the Guardians beat the Chicago White Sox 2-0 Saturday night to complete a comeback from an 0-2 deficit in their best-of-five AL Division Series.

Cleveland opens the AL Championship Series at Tampa Bay on Monday night, seeking its first World Series trip since 2016. The Guardians/Indians franchise hasn’t won the title since 1948, the longest drought among MLB teams.

Guardians pitchers set a record for strikeouts in a nine-inning postseason game and the most in any regular or postseason game since at least 1900. The White Sox got just three hits, put only nine balls in play and finished the series with 75 strikeouts and a .185 batting average.

“It was less about chase and more about being attacked in the zone and swing and miss in the zone,” White Sox manager Will Venable said. “Just didn’t have what it would have took to move some balls forward there.”

Cleveland became just the 11th team to win a best-of-five series among the 96 that fell behind 0-2, the first since the 2017 New York Yankees against the Indians and only the fourth to achieve the feat after losing the first two games at home.

Two days after saving Game 4, Williams became just the third pitcher in postseason history to get the last out of a game and start the following game when his team faced elimination in both.

He didn’t allow a hit until Kyle Teel looped a knuckle-curve into right field with two outs in the sixth, two innings after Ramírez homered for the second straight game, a two-run drive off Sean Burke.

After a walk loaded the bases, Erik Sabrowski relieved and struck out Munetaka Murakami on a foul tip, the pitcher letting out a yell.

Williams’ 12 strikeouts tied Cleveland’s record for a postseason game. He got 22 swings and misses, and his 24 strikeouts over three games were one shy of the mark for best-of-five postseason series.

“That was big-boy stuff today,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “We’ve seen other performances like that in the postseason, but to do it in this stage and these types of games facing three straight elimination and you have one of your starters say I will pitch whenever you need me to, super impressive.”

Hunter Gaddis followed Sabrowski and got four outs, and Cade Smith finished for his first career five-out save, striking out the side in the ninth. He blew a fastball by Tristan Peters for the final out, setting off a celebration at Progressive Field.

Chicago, the first team to reach the playoffs after three straight 100-loss seasons, has not won the World Series since 2005.

Ramírez homered on a knuckle-curve 0.74 feet above ground, the lowest pitch hit for a postseason home run since tracking started in 2008, according to MLB Statcast, and the lowest hit by Ramirez in his 14-year big league career.

Steven Kwan had singled leading off the fourth ahead of Ramírez's sixth postseason homer, which went just over the wall near the right-field line.

Murakami and Andrew Benintendi struck out four times each, and Teel and Chase Meidroth three times apiece.

Tampa Bay went 5-1 against the Guardians, including three shutouts. It will be the third postseason meeting of the teams following the Rays' win in the 2013 wild card game and the Guardians' sweep in the 2022 Wild Card Series.

See AP’s full MLB coverage here