Warsaw’s Stadion Narodowy Hosts Women’s Champions League Final In 2027

The UEFA Executive Committee has today decided to award the right to stage the 2027 Women’s Champions League final to the 56,826-capacity Stadion Narodowy in Warsaw.

Warsaw saw off competition from Barcelona, Basel and Cardiff to become the first city in the former Eastern Bloc to stage a one-off UEFA Women’s Champions League final, the 27th in the history of the competition. Poland is also bidding to host the UEFA Women’s Euro in 2029. It remains to be seen whether this award is a positive sign ahead of that decision in December or a way of making it easier for UEFA to go elsewhere.

Poland’s women’s national team made history this summer by qualifying to play at their first-ever UEFA Women’s Euro. Polish FA President Cezary Kulesza said the award was a testament to his country’s commitment to the women’s game. “I’m delighted that UEFA has once again placed its trust in us. During the previous term, the development of women’s football was one of our priorities. This year, we hosted the U19 Women’s European Championship in the Podkarpacie region. Next year, we will host the U20 Women’s World Championship.”

“We have also submitted an application to host the senior Women’s Euro in 2029. Events like this greatly contribute to the further promotion of women’s football. I would like to thank the management of the PGE Narodowy Stadium, as the exemplary organization of previous events certainly increased our chances of reaching the Champions League final.”

UEFA first invited its Member Associations to put forward candidates to stage the 2026 and 2027 Women’s Champions League final back in July 2023. Germany proposed three candidate cities – Gelsenkirchen, Munich and Stuttgart – alongside expressions of interest from Glasgow’s Hampden Park and Oslo’s Ullevaal Stadion.

The decision on the hosts of the 2027 final has been delayed twice already. Initially due to be determined in May 2024, the process had to be re-opened as Stuttgart could not be considered because of the fact that another German city. Frankfurt, had already been given the right to stage the 2027 men’s Europa League final. Oslo was selected to stage the 2026 final.

At that stage, Barcelona’s 105,000-capacity Camp Nou entered the ring alongside Basle’s St. Jakob-Park, Cardiff’s 73,931-capacity Principality Stadium and Warsaw’s Stadion Narodowy. Cardiff had previously staged the 2017 UEFA Women’s Champions League final at the smaller Cardiff City Stadium. Basle hosted the final of this summer’s UEFA Women’s Euro.

The award was then due to be made in May 2025, but once again it was postponed with UEFA citing “operational reasons”. This allowed Barcelona more time to complete the first stage of renovations on their Camp Nou stadium and ensure the ground was closer to being ready to stage games before the decision was finally made by UEFA.

Camp Nou is currently under renovation and has not hosted a match in over two years. Once completed, it will have the largest capacity of any soccer stadium in Europe and the third-largest in the world after the Rungrado 1st of May Stadium in Pyongyang and the Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor. It currently holds the world record attendance for a women’s club game and a showpiece UEFA Women’s Champions League final may have attracted the first six-figure crowd in the competition.

The FC Barcelona men’s team were due to start playing at the partially completed stadium at the start of this season. However, delays to the construction has meant this has been put back indefinitely. Ironically, they will now play their first La Liga home game of the season this weekend at their women’s team home ground, the 6,000-capacity Estadi Johan Cruyff.

“The Polish Football Association has earned great trust from the European Football Federation,” said Łukasz Wachowski, Secretary General of the Polish Football Association. “This is crucial, as each such event strengthens our position and increases the chances of organizing similar events in the future. It’s worth noting that on this occasion we won the competition, for example against the legendary Camp Nou.”

The 2027 game could set a new record of attendance for a UEFA Women’s Champions League final. In 2024, 50,827 people saw the final between FC Barcelona and Olympique Lyonnais in Bilbao. Warsaw’s Stadion Narodowy, constructed in time for the men’s European Championship in 2012, has previously also hosted the 2015 men’s Europa League final and 2021 UEFA Super Cup.