Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel supports UEFA decision to change Champions League final location

Thomas Tuchel has added his support to UEFA's decision to change the location of the Champions League final.

The competition's zenith was set to be based in St Petersburg but European football's governing body confirmed it would be moved to Paris as a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

It will be the third time in as many seasons the Champions League has seen it's showpiece have to move after the 2020 final was expected to be in the Ataturk Olympic Stadium in Instanbul before being moved to the Estadio da Luz in Lisbon as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Ataturk Olympic stadium was once again nominated in 2021 but due to the Covid-19 pandemic once again, the final returned to Portgual but in Porto's Estadio do Dragao.

Tuchel coached in both finals, the latter helping the Blues to success, but was understandably in no mood to take any joy in that fact. The German coach believes the right decision was made in this instance.

He said: "Yes, a clear yes and sadly I think it's the worst reason to change a location, the absolutely worst reason. We feel horrible about it in general, it clouds our minds and clouds our focus of course and we can absolutely understand the decision.

"At the moment actually we don't think so much about it, it's nice that you mentioned it, it's nice that it was like this the last two times because of corona. We already thought this was not good news because of Corona and now we have even worse news.

"There are things more important and the focus from us in general on sporting and globally speaking is not on the final."

UEFA held an extraordinaly general meeting on Friday morning to discuss alternative locations and voted to move the match to the Stade de France, while adding that all