Cardiff's Millennium Stadium to Host 2017 Champions League Final

Cardiff's Millennium Stadium will host the 2017 Champions League final, UEFA confirmed on Tuesday.

The 74,500-seat venue is Wales' largest stadium by some distance, and it is a fitting venue for the country's first European Cup final, which will be played on June 3, 2017.

Having opened in 1999, the Millennium Stadium is home to the Welsh national rugby team and has hosted numerous major sporting events.

It was the venue for the 1999 Rugby World Cup final and the home of the FA Cup and League Cup finals between 2001 and 2006 while Wembley Stadium was being redeveloped.

The decision to award Cardiff the hosting rights for 2017 was made at a UEFA Executive Committee meeting in Prague on Monday.

Cardiff-born Real Madrid star Gareth Bale—who appeared for Los Blancos at the Millennium Stadium in the 2014 UEFA Super Cup—expressed his delight at the news, per the Associated Press' Rob Harris (via Yahoo):

"

These are exciting times for Welsh football. I know how passionate the Welsh football fans are, so it's great the UEFA Champions League final is coming to my home city of Cardiff. I loved playing in the UEFA Super Cup last year, and it would be fantastic to be involved in front of a packed crowd at such an iconic stadium in 2017.

"

The last time the Champions League final was played on UK soil was at Wembley in 2013, when Bayern Munich beat German rivals Borussia Dortmund 2-1.

Solna's Friends Arena in Sweden was also announced on Tuesday as the venue for the 2017 Europa League final, per UEFA:

The 50,000-seat venue opened in 2012 and has never hosted a major European club competition final, though the 1998 Cup Winners' Cup final was played in neighbouring Stockholm.

Both venues were awarded their respective finals after failing in their bids to host matches at the continent-wide 2020 European Championship.