Budapest to host 2019 Women's Champions' League final
European football's governing body UEFA has awarded the Groupama Aréna in Budapest the rights to host the 2019 Women's Champions' League final. Hungary has never hosted the final of a UEFA club tournament so MLSZ President Sándor Csányi believes the international organisation is now recognising our efforts to develop women's football.
"At last we'll be able to see in budapest with our own eyes where the level is of women's football's elite European clubs", Mr Csányi told mlsz.hu. "We will stage the biggest women's football match of the year of 2019 in the Groupama Aréna, discounting of course the Hungarian national team's most important fixtures. The Champions' League final will help us draw attention to women's football and to further popularise Hungary's capital city with fans abroad", Csányi continued.
Budapest has played host to significant UEFA events in the past, for example in 2012 when 1200 delegates from 208 countries congregated in Budapest for the 62nd FIFA Congress, in 2014 when the Under 19 men's European Championship took place in our capital city and in May 2016 when UEFA's 40th Congress found its home here. "In recent years, both the UEFA and FIFA Congresses have been hosted by us, the U19 Euros was here and we are currently preparing to host four matches at Euro 2020, which will be the biggest football event ever held on Hungarian soil. UEFA's decision this week does not just validate our improved infrastructure but also recognises our efforts in supporting the development of women's football", Csányi concluded.
Since the tournament's inception in 2001, no Hungarian club has ever won European women's football's premier club competition and 40-time capped international striker Zsanett Jakabfi remains the only Hungarian player to have lifted the trophy so far, having done so with German club Wolfsburg in 2013 and 2014. The 2017/18 edition of the competition features the top 32 clubs from across Europe who are all vying for a place in the final on 24th May in the Valeriy Lobonovsky stadium in Kiev, Ukraine.