{"id":436738,"date":"2026-05-07T11:07:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T11:07:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/436738\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T11:07:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T11:07:13","slug":"champions-league-final-has-new-totally-new-kick-off-time-that-very-few-people-spotted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/436738\/","title":{"rendered":"Champions League final has new totally new kick-off time that very few people spotted"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text_text__nEn66\">Following the conclusion of the Champions League semi-finals, it has been confirmed that Luis Enrique\u2019s Paris Saint-Germain will defend their crown against Mikel Arteta\u2019s Arsenal in Budapest, Hungary, on May 30.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text_text__nEn66\"><a class=\"anchor_link__6t7IO\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportbible.com\/mikel-arteta\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Arteta<\/a>\u2019s side overcame Diego Simeone\u2019s Atletico Madrid with a 1\u20130 win (2\u20131 on aggregate), courtesy of a Bukayo Saka strike on Tuesday, before <a class=\"anchor_link__6t7IO\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportbible.com\/paris-saint-germain\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">PSG<\/a> drew 1\u20131, securing a 6\u20135 aggregate victory over Bayern on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text_text__nEn66\">The final will be <a class=\"anchor_link__6t7IO\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportbible.com\/arsenal\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Arsenal<\/a>\u2019s second of all time and their first since the days of Ars\u00e8ne Wenger and Thierry Henry in 2006.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text_text__nEn66\">As for PSG, the showpiece will be the club\u2019s third, having reached the final in 2020 \u2013 losing to Bayern \u2013 before last year\u2019s 5\u20130 victory over Inter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text_text__nEn66\">This year\u2019s final will take place at the 70,000-capacity Pusk\u00e1s Ar\u00e9na, with the venue previously playing host to the 2023 Europa League final between Sevilla and Roma.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text_text__nEn66\">Gunners supporters will already be clamouring for tickets, with the club given an allocation of nearly 17,000, although thousands more will no doubt make the trip from London to Hungary in the hope of securing an unlikely ticket to the final.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text_text__nEn66\">Ahead of this year\u2019s final, it may be worth both sets of fans checking the kick-off time, as a change has been made.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text_text__nEn66\">In previous years, the match has kicked off at 8pm (BST), but the clash will get underway three hours earlier, at 5pm, this time around.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text_text__nEn66\">The reason for the change is related to enhancing the matchday experience for fans, making the game more accessible for younger audiences and international viewers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text_text__nEn66\">Explaining the reasons for the change, UEFA president Aleksander \u010ceferin said: \u201cWith this change, we are placing the fans\u2019 experience at the heart of our planning.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text_text__nEn66\">\u201cThe UEFA <a class=\"anchor_link__6t7IO\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportbible.com\/football\/football-news\/champions-league\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Champions League<\/a> final is the highlight of the football season, and the new kick-off time will make it even more accessible, inclusive and impactful for everyone involved.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text_text__nEn66\">\u201cWhile a 21:00 CET (20:00 GMT) kick-off is well suited to midweek matches, an earlier kick-off on a Saturday for the final means an earlier finish \u2013 regardless of extra time or penalties \u2013 and offers fans the opportunity to enjoy the rest of the evening with friends and family, reflecting on the game of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following the conclusion of the Champions League semi-finals, it has been confirmed that Luis Enrique\u2019s Paris Saint-Germain will&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[15133,15013,1128,61,60,28774,112,30918],"class_list":["post-436738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-arsenal","tag-champions-league","tag-football","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-psg","tag-sports","tag-uefa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}