Presidents preview UEFA Women's Champions League final
Friday, May 20, 2022
Article summary
UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin and Italian Football Association (FIGC) counterpart Gabriele Gravina look ahead to the culmination of an incredible season for women's football.
Article top media content
![Gabriele Gravina (left) and Aleksander Čeferin Gabriele Gravina (left) and Aleksander Čeferin](https://editorial.uefa.com/resources/0275-15304658a00e-843bc5c7c38e-1000/format/wide1/ceferin_gravina.jpeg?imwidth=158)
Article body
Aleksander Čeferin, UEFA president
Welcome to Turin for the 2021/22 UEFA Women’s Champions League final! This season, bold new standards have been set for the game’s future, rewarding an innovative approach that establishes the competition as a bright star within UEFA’s club competition constellation.
The change of branding and competition format, alongside a new approach to marketing and television matters, triggered a fine reaction from the footballing community, resulting in a string of breathtaking matches, with attendance records falling one after another.
Numerous true stars of the women’s game have emerged this season, with many of them wearing the jerseys of the two outstanding teams that will face each other in what promises to be a spectacular final.
Football is an inseparable part of Italian identity, and people here live for the game. This energy makes each final organised in Italy unique. Therefore, I thank the Italian Football Federation and its president, Gabriele Gravina, for their hospitality and devotion to delivering such an outstanding event. Enjoy the match!
Gabriele Gravina, FIGC president
We’re finally there: with the kick-off of the UEFA Women’s Champions League final, we’re ready to experience exciting new emotions. The quality of the two best teams in Europe guarantees a true spectacle, having arrived at the last act after a thrilling journey at the end of a season in which women’s football has definitively left its mark on the continent, shattering records for attendance in stadiums, television ratings and interactions on social media. For this reason as well, the FIGC is proud to be able to host such a prestigious event.
In Italy, we’ve launched a structured programme to develop the women’s game from football schools all the way up to the biggest clubs. It is an evolutionary process, facilitated by our collaboration with UEFA and which, from next season, will take an important step by recognising the status of professional athletes. This fundamental amendment protecting players’ rights is part of a general growth in the women’s game, with increasingly eye-catching results even at continental level.
The UEFA Women’s Champions League final returns to Italy for the first time since Reggio Emilia hosted the game in 2016, and is further motivation for the whole of Italian football to continue to invest in and grow women’s football. I’m convinced that this event will help inspire new generations of Italian girls and women, who are becoming increasingly interested in the skills of the best players in our league.
Finally, the setting of this match is extraordinary: Turin welcomes the two finalist teams to a stadium that has already made history in European football. It is a welcoming and charming city that will make sure that fans’ time here will be rewarding and unique. Have a great time!