ISTANBUL, Turkey, May 19 – President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday slammed the UEFA decision to move the Champions League final from Istanbul to Porto as “political”.
“In my opinion, they made a political decision,” Erdogan said in a televised speech.
“I call it political because we were notified two years ago of the decision that the Champions League would be played in Turkey,” he added.
UEFA announced this month that the final between Manchester City and Chelsea would be played in Porto instead of Istanbul in the hope of allowing English fans to attend.
The announcement came after the UK government placed Turkey on a coronavirus travel red list.
Erdogan said on Wednesday the change of the venue came after “two teams from the British league won the right to play the final”.
