UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin has expressed the possibility of staging the Champions League final in the United States in the foreseeable future, citing the growing popularity of football in the country as a prime opportunity for the organization to expand its global reach.
The showpiece event in European club football has never been held outside the continent since the competition's inception in 1955, Ceferin said a break from tradition could be on the cards as they toyed with the idea.
"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 told 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 year's Super Bowl attracted an average of 113 million viewers on U.S. television and digital platforms.
However, Ceferin said the time difference was a problem, especially if they played on the Pacific coast in the afternoon, which would see matches kick off around midnight in Europe.
The U.S. will co-host the 2026 World Cup along with Mexico and Canada.
Ceferin, a Slovenian lawyer who has been UEFA president since 2016, was re-elected unopposed during their Ordinary Congress in Lisbon earlier this month and will serve a four-year term until 2027.
