UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin has expressed the potential of staging the Champions League remaining within the United States within the foreseeable future, citing the rising recognition of soccer within the nation as a major alternative for the group to develop its international attain.
The showpiece occasion in European membership soccer has by no means been held exterior the continent because the competitors’s inception in 1955, Ceferin stated a break from custom may very well be on the playing cards as they toyed with the thought.
“It’s possible. We started to discuss about that but then one year it was the World Cup, (20)24 is Euros, this year (the final) is in Istanbul, ’24 is in London and ’25 is in Munich and after that, let’s see,” Ceferin informed the Men in Blazers podcast.
“Football is extremely popular in the United States today … Americans are ready to pay for the best and nothing for the less. So they will follow European football as basketball lovers in Europe follow the NBA.”
“What shocked me (about the American audience) was that the European Championship finals were watched by more people in the U.S. than the NBA Finals … For 30 matches of the Euros, the viewership was like Super Bowl viewership.”
This yr’s Super Bowl attracted a median of 113 million viewers on U.S. tv and digital platforms.
However, Ceferin stated the time distinction was an issue, particularly in the event that they performed on the Pacific coast within the afternoon, which might see matches kick off round midnight in Europe.
The U.S. will co-host the 2026 World Cup together with Mexico and Canada.
Ceferin, a Slovenian lawyer who has been UEFA president since 2016, was re-elected unopposed throughout their Ordinary Congress in Lisbon earlier this month and can serve a four-year time period till 2027.
Source: www.dailysabah.com
