UEFA move Champions League final from St Petersburg to Paris

The Champions League final will not be played in St Petersburg. The world currently has its eyes on Ukraine, where Russia invaded in the early hours of Thursday morning and UEFA have decided to act.

Russia have lost the Champions League final, this time for political reasons. It is the latest measure taken in football after the ones that had been announced on Thursday.

The Ukrainian league announced that, due to the invasion of Russia troops in the country, they have suspended their competition for 30 days. Ukrainian footballers such as Zinchenko and Zozulya have also spoken. The latter compared Putin to Hitler.

UEFA this Thursday strongly condemned Russia's military invasion of Ukraine, as well as "sharing the important concern of the international community due to the security situation which is developing across Europe."

This Friday, before the Europa League and Conference League draws, UEFA had an emergency meeting of its Executive Committee to take the decision of stripping Russia of the Champions League final.

This was going to the be the third European final in Russia. The previous two were the 1999 UEFA Cup final at the Luzhniki stadium in Moscow and 2008 Champions League final at the same venue. 

UEFA also decided that Russian and Ukrainian clubs and national teams must play in a neutral country until further notice. That affects Spartak Moscow's Europa League home matches, Russia's World Cup play-off semi final with Poland as well as a potential final with Sweden or the Czech Republic and Russia and Ukraine's Nations League games.