Champions League final could eventually be played outside of Europe

The Champions League final could be contested outside Europe from the first time, new UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin said Thursday.

In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, Ceferin said he will revive an open bidding process for the right to host the climax to the European club season and is open to the game being staged in New York.

"I think it might be an idea in future but we have to speak about it," Ceferin said, highlighting how travel times across Europe can be as long as flights to the United States.

"To go from Portugal to Azerbaijan for example is almost the same or the same as if you go to New York. For the fans it's no problem but we should see. It's a European competition so let's think about it."

UEFA has until now been awarding the honour of staging its showpiece finals without any tendering process, with stadium hosts decided in secret by the leadership.

"The bidding process should be very clear because if you get the Champions League finals or Europa league finals as a political favour then it's not OK," Ceferin said.

In his first major interview since succeeding Michel Platini as UEFA president last month, Ceferin displayed a willingness to innovate while not damaging the organization's lucrative competitions.

"The Champions League is the best sporting product in the world," Ceferin said.

And the former Slovenia federation president will not sacrifice the success of the competition by shifting kickoff times to pander to expanding soccer markets in Asia just to sweep up more television viewers or sponsors in the region. Most games start at 1845 GMT, when much of Asia is asleep.

"From a financial point of view it's not ideal," Ceferin said. "We should think also about other markets, but how to do it exactly I'm not sure yet. China is financially interesting and the U.S. is not just financially interesting, but football is growing there."

Currently only the final is played on a Saturday, but one option would be to also move the semifinals from their current midweek slot.

"There are some ideas about that because then China is not asleep because it's Saturday and they can watch," Ceferin said. "But there are many problems concerning that with the calendar of the leagues. National leagues are too important.

"You have the Premier League which is very strong. It's an idea that came out [semifinals at the weekend] but it's too early to say anything concrete on it."

World Cup expansion discussed

While mulling modifications to the Champions League, Ceferin is also involved in talks on whether to expand the World Cup. In his first FIFA Council meeting last week since becoming one of the governing body's vice presidents, Ceferin heard President Gianni Infantino propose boosting the World Cup from 32 to 48 teams.

"We didn't want to vote on it as it was too early," Ceferin said. "We simply didn't get any information about it. Nothing. Just shall we expand or not. We said we cannot say."

Ceferin is awaiting "proper analysis" on the merits of such a significant overhaul of the tournament. He is already certain Europe should gain a fair share of the additional 16 places rather than expansion being used to correct disparities between how the slots are currently split between the six confederations.​