The 2016 UEFA Champions League Final will be the final match of the 2015–16 UEFA Champions League, the 61st season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 24th season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to theUEFA Champions League. It will be played at the San Siro stadium in Milan, Italy, on 28 May 2016.
The winners will earn the right to play against the winners of the 2015–16 UEFA Europa League in the 2016 UEFA Super Cup. They will also qualify to enter the semi-finals of the 2016 FIFA Club World Cup as the UEFA representative. This final will be the sixth tournament final to feature two teams from the same association, the third all-Spanish final, and the second between teams from the same city, fielding exactly the two teams that faced each other in the 2014 final, making it the seventh repeated final pairing.
Milan's Stadio Giuseppe Meazza – otherwise known as San Siro – will host the 2016 UEFA Champions League final on 28 May.
It will be the fourth time the European Cup has been decided at the stadium after 1965, 1970 and 2001. The arena, first opened in 1926, is home to both AC Milan and Internazionale Milano.
Stadium facts
UEFA capacity: TBC
Tenants: AC Milan, FC Internazionale Milano
Opened: 19 September 1926
• The stadium was built for Milan in 1925 and originally named after the district in which it is located, San Siro. Inter beat Milan 6-3 in the opening game on 19 September 1926.
• Milan owned the stadium until it was sold to the city in 1935, before an enlargement that increased capacity to more than 50,000 in 1939.
• Inter moved into the venue in 1947 and a revamp in the mid-1950s took the capacity to above 100,000.
• In 1965, Inter won the first European Cup final to be held at the stadium, followed by Feyenoord in 1970 and FC Bayern München in 2001.
• Milan was used as a venue during the 1980 UEFA European Championship, the same year that it was officially renamed after former Inter and Milan player Giuseppe Meazza.
• The stadium was further overhauled as an all-seater with its impressive concrete towers for the 1990 FIFA World Cup.
Real Madrid Club de Fútbol
commonly known asReal Madrid, or simply as Real, is a professional football club based in Madrid, Spain.
Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the team has traditionally worn a white home kit since inception. The word Real is Spanish forRoyal and was bestowed to the club by King Alfonso XIII in 1920 together with the royal crown in the emblem. The team has played its home matches in the 85,454-capacity Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in downtown Madrid since 1947. Unlike most European sporting entities, Real Madrid's members (socios) have owned and operated the club throughout its history.
The club is the most valuable sports team in the world, worth €2.5 billion ($3.4 billion) and the world's highest-earning football club for 2013–14, with an annual revenue of €549.5 million.[5][6][7] The club is one of the most widely supported teams in the world. Real Madrid is one of three founding members of the Primera División that have never been relegated from the top division, along with Athletic Bilbaoand Barcelona. The club holds many long-standing rivalries, most notably El Clásico with Barcelona and the El Derbi madrileño withAtlético Madrid.
Real Madrid established itself as a major force in both Spanish and European football during the 1950s. The club won five consecutiveEuropean Cups, and reached the final seven times. This success was replicated in the league, where the club won five times in the space of seven years. This team, which consisted of players such as Di Stéfano, Ferenc Puskás, Gento, Raymond Kopa, andSantamaría, is considered by some in the sport to be the greatest team of all time.
In domestic football, the club has won a record 32 La Liga titles, 19 Copa del Rey, 9 Supercopa de España, 1 Copa Eva Duarte, and 1Copa de la Liga.[13] In international football, the club has won a record 10 European Cup/UEFA Champions League titles and a joint record 3 Intercontinental Cups, as well as 2 UEFA Cups, 2 UEFA Super Cups and a FIFA Club World Cup.
Real Madrid was recognised as the FIFA Club of the 20th Century on 23 December 2000, and named Best European Club of the 20th Century by the IFFHS on 11 May 2010. The club received the FIFA Centennial Order of Merit in 2004. The club is ranked first in the latest IFFHS Club World Ranking, setting a new ranking-points record. The club also leads the current UEFA club rankings.
Club Atlético de Madrid
commonly known as Atlético Madrid, or simply as Atlético, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid, that plays in La Liga.
In terms of UEFA competition titles won, Atlético Madrid is Spain's 3rd most successful club behind Real Madrid and Barcelona. In terms of thenumber of titles, Atlético Madrid is the fourth most successful club in Spanish football, behind Real Madrid, Barcelona and Athletic Bilbao. Atlético have won La Liga on ten occasions, including a league and cup double in 1996; the Copa del Rey on ten occasions; two Supercopas de Españaand one Copa Eva Duarte; in Europe, they won the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1962, were runners-up in 1963 and 1986, were European Cup runners-up in 1974 and 2014, won the Europa League in 2010 and in 2012, won the UEFA Super Cup in 2010 and 2012, as well as the1974 Intercontinental Cup.
The club play their home games at the Vicente Calderón, which holds up to 54,960 spectators. In 2016, Atlético are due to move to their new home of Estadio La Peineta, which will have a capacity of 70,000. Atlético's home kit is red and white vertical striped shirts, with blue shorts, accompanied by blue and red socks. This combination has been used since 1911. The current club kits are manufactured by Nike and the main sponsor is Plus500.
During their history the club has been known by a number of nicknames, including Los Colchoneros ("The Mattress Makers"), due to their first team stripes being the same colours as old-fashioned mattresses. During the 1970s, they became known as Los Indios, allegedly due to the club signing several South American players after the restrictions on signing foreign players were lifted. However, there are a number of alternative theories which claim they were named so because their stadium is "camped" on the river bank, or because Los Indios (The Indians) were the traditional enemy of Los Blancos (The Whites), which is the nickname of the club's city rivals, Real Madrid.
Felipe VI, the current king of Spain, has been the honorary president of the club since 2003. The club co-owns the Indian Super Leaguefranchise in Kolkata, named Atlético de Kolkata, which won the inaugural season of the competition in 2014.
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