UEFA awarded the 2010 Champions League final to Madrid's Bernabeu stadium on Friday and said that London's Wembley bid had missed out ‘for tax reasons’.
Wembley and the Bernabeu were among five grounds competing to stage the event in 2010 and 2011 but the London stadium was discounted for 2010 after failing to provide assurances that players competing in the final would not be taxed by the British government.
‘Yes, the reason was the taxes,’ UEFA president Michel Platini told a media conference following Friday's executive committee meeting.
‘The concerns we had over players being taxed were minimised by the English FA but not confirmed by the British government.’
UEFA maintains that footballers should be taxed in their country of domicile and that taxing them separately in every country they play matches in would be both unfair and unnecessarily complicated.
Platini said UEFA had received assurances from the German government that it would not tax visiting players if the finals were awarded to Berlin's Olympiastadion or Munich's Allianz Arena.
Platini's advisor William Gaillard said Spain's two bids, involving the Bernabeu and Valencia's Mestalla stadium, were not affected as there was no such direct tax law in Spain.
UEFA's executive committee had planned to announce the holders of both the 2010 and 2011 finals but will now reopen the bidding for 2011.
The fact that UEFA did not simply award the 2011 event to one of the German bids is likely to offer some comfort to the Wembley bid.
‘It gives them the chance to provide the necessary answers to the tax question,’ Gaillard said. ‘Clearly Wembley is an outstanding venue.’
The 2010 UEFA Cup final will be held at the Hamburg Arena, but a decision over the 2011 final was also put on hold.
Platini said this was partly due to questions over the readiness of some of the bidding stadiums.
He said it was also a result of the delayed Champions League decision, since UEFA tries to avoid having major finals organised by the same countries in consecutive years.
