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

THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) — Barcelona’s renovated Camp Nou was picked over Wembley Stadium in London to host the 2029 Champions League final, UEFA said Tuesday.

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.

The much-delayed rebuild of a 105,000-seat Camp Nou is ongoing with the upper tier and roof still under construction.

Barcelona last hosted the Champions League final in 1999, when Manchester United’s two stoppage-time goals stunned a dominant Bayern team.

Wembley has hosted three times since then — 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 the new Serbian national venue in Belgrade for 2029.

The final this season is at Eintracht Frankfurt’s Waldstadium home.

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

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.

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Barcelona's Lamine Yamal celebrates after scoring his side's fourth goal during the Champions League opening phase soccer between Barcelona and Feyenoord in Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026.(AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

TOKYO (AP) — Japan's air force lost contact on Tuesday with one of its long-distance surveillance drones after it went missing during a flight off the country's northwestern coast.

There was no immediate information as to what the mission of the uncrewed RQ-4B aircraft, also known as Global Hawk, was.

The Air Self-Defense Force said the drone disappeared from the radar and was last seen 50 kilometers (31 miles) off the coast of Tottori earlier in the afternoon.

The drone is one of three Global Hawks owned by the air force and deployed at its Misawa Air Base in the northern prefecture of Aomori.

The drones are considered valuable because they can conduct long-range missions and are able to fly at a height of about 60,000 feet (18.3 kilometers) and can fly continuously for up to 36 hours. They allow Japan to easily monitor areas on the Asian mainland, including North Korea and China.

Japan is trying to adapt to changing times and develop defense strategies that use drones, including those for combat, artificial intelligence and new methods of warfare. Under its five-year plan established in 2022, the country has doubled its defense spending to about 2% of its gross domestic product to build up its Self-Defense Forces’ offensive role to counter China’s growing assertiveness.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's government is now preparing new security and defense strategies, expected to be unveiled later this year.

Beijing has criticized Japan’s defense buildup as “new militarism.”

A Global Hawk, long-distance surveillance drone of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force, is shown to the media at its base in Misawa, Aomori prefecture, on Jan., 2023. (Kyodo News via AP)