LEN officially announced that the next three editions of the Champions League Final Eight (2021, 2022, 2023) would be held in Belgrade. The host will be the Water polo club Novi Beograd.
This information was already confirmed by Novi Beograd in March.
“Since it became official that the originally appointed host Hannover would not be able to deliver the event, LEN was in search to find the best option for the F8 tournament, preferably on the long-term. Serbia’s emerging new club Novi Beograd (New Belgrade) came up with an ambitious bid, which even offered the hosting of the 2021 edition despite no Serbian side competes this year.
The agreement, finalised and signed by all parties in recent days, ensures that Novi Beograd will have a wild card in the next two seasons and also a guaranteed spot in the Final Eight in 2022 and 2023 (as usual for the hosts since 2014)”, LEN announced today.
LEN announced that there would be no spectators at the 2021 Final Eight tournament. This year’s F8 (June 3 – 5) will be held, as many predicted, in front of the empty stands in the indoor pool of the Sports Centre “April 11” (the home pool of WPC Novi Beograd), in a bubble. The preliminary stage and the qualifications for the 2021 Champions League have been also held without spectators in a bubble format, due to the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.
“The 2022 and 2023 editions might be staged in the adjacent outdoor pool with temporary stands around”, LEN said in today’s press release.
There are three indoor pools at the Sports center “April 11” (one Olympic pool and two smaller for warming-up and non-swimmers), and three outdoor pools – one Olympic pool (50m x 25m) and two smaller.
Belgrade will host the final tournament of the Champions League for the second time in the 21st century. The 2013 CHL Final Four was played in the pool Banjica. Partizan was the home team, but the other Serbian club won the trophy. Crvena Zvezda surprised many and won the Champions League after defeating Jug Dubrovnik in the final game.
The preliminary stage of the 2021 Champions League will be finished next week in Ostia and Budapest. Pro Recco, Jug, Brescia, Barceloneta, and Ferencvaros have already qualified for the F8 in Belgrade.
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