Chelsea will play Villarreal in the UEFA Super Cup final in Belfast, the Irish FA has confirmed today, even though a Turkish government minister had insisted the match would be moved to Istanbul.
There had been speculation the game may be moved to the Ataturk Stadium in Turkey even before the Minister of Youth and Sports, Mehmet Kasapoglu's, intervention last week.
When Kasapoglu' stated the Super Cup and the 2023 Champions League final. was heading to Istanbul after the Turkish venue was deprived of hosting the Champions League final for the second year in a row, it looked like Northern Ireland was destined to miss out.
'We had completed all our preparations for this competition and made our plans. We would like a final with enthusiastic fans in the stands, but it was not possible under pandemic conditions,' Kasapoglu told Goal Turkey.
Last season, as coronavirus pandemic gathered pace, UEFA moved the latter stages of the Champions League to Portugal and again this year, the showpiece ended up in south west Europe after Turkey suffered a second wave of Covid infection.
But UEFA has stood firm and now confirmed to the Irish FA that the showpiece will be played in Belfast after all.
On Saturday, Chelsea qualified for the one-off encounter when they stunned Manchester City in a 1-0 victory in the Champions League final at the Estádio do Dragão stadium in Porto.
Meanwhile, in the Europa League final, Villarreal overcame Manchester United in a thrilling penalty shoot out following a tense 1-1 draw in Gdansk, Poland, last week.
Throughout weeks of uncertainty over the location of the Super Cup final, Northern Ireland remained desperate to host the match and the Irish FA has now received confirmation from UEFA.
The final will be played at the National Football Stadium at Windsor Park in Belfast on August 11.
Irish FA CEO, Patrick Nelson, said: 'We have kept in close contact with our partners at UEFA on the matter and following these discussions we are delighted that they have confirmed that the game will stay in Belfast.'
Details of the attendance and ticketing arrangements are still to be finalised.
