2012 final: Fußball Arena München

Home to FC Bayern München and TSV 1860 München, the Fußball Arena München will host the 2012 UEFA Champions League final following a decision made by the UEFA Executive Committee in January 2009. The showpiece will take place on Saturday 19 May 2012.

• The Fußball Arena München took less than three years to build from start to finish, and was completed on 30 April 2005. It was conceived following a referendum in October 2001 when 65.8% of Munich’s citizens voted to construct a new arena rather than regenerate the Olympiastadion, venue for the 1972 summer Olympic Games and previous home of Bayern and 1860 München.

• A year to the day after that vote, work commenced on the stadium, including the construction of the unique exterior. The Fußball Arena München’s transparent outer wall is comprised of foil panels which are lit from the inside and can change colour depending on who is playing; red for Bayern, blue for 1860 München and white for Germany.

• The arena opened its doors to competitive football on 5 August 2005 when a full house of 66,000 watched Bayern defeat VfL Borussia Mönchengladbach 3-0. In January 2006, city authorities approved a 3,901 increase in capacity which means the stadium can now house 69,901 supporters. Some of these reside in standing terraces which are created for domestic games by converting 10,400 seats in each of the north and south stands.

• Located on Werner-Heisenberg-Allee – named after famous German atomic physicist and 1932 Nobel Prize for Physics winner Werner Heisenberg – the Fußball Arena München played host to the opening game of the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Germany’s 4-2 victory against Costa Rica. A further five matches in the tournament were played at the arena, including France’s 1-0 semi-final win against Portugal.

• While some 106 VIP boxes, 400 media seats and 11,000 parking spaces cater for those attending the game, the players make do with two warm-up rooms, a nursery and four changing rooms – one each for Bayern, 1860 München and their respective opponents.

• The Olympiastadion hosted three European Champion Clubs’ Cup finals. Trevor Francis’s strike earned Nottingham Forest FC victory against Malmö FF in 1979 and there was also only one goal in it 24 years later when Olympique de Marseille beat AC Milan to claim the inaugural UEFA Champions League title. In 1997 two Karl-Heinz Riedle efforts set BV Borussia Dortmund on course for a 3-1 win against Juventus.

From: http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/season=2012/final/index.html

Munich 2012 final visual identity unveiled

UEFA has today unveiled the new visual identity created specially for the UEFA Champions League Final Munich 2012. The final will take place at the Fußball Arena München on Saturday 19 May.

The final of the 2012 UEFA Champions League in Munich has been given a personality of its own with a complete design concept developed specially for the event. The design and logo will provide the 2012 final with a unique identity that will be applied across a wide range of promotional applications, with the objective to help promote the final and enhance the prestige of one of the world’s biggest sporting events. The 2011 final between FC Barcelona and Manchester United FC at Wembley was indeed watched by a global average audience of 179 million viewers worldwide.

The design concept created by The Works agency in Leeds is based on an amalgamation of style and energy derived from the German Expressionist movement and a diverse array of modern architecture based around the city of Munich. Blue and aqua tones in the design have been taken from strong influences of the reflection of modern architectural materials such as glass and metal.

The construction of the design adopts the diamond shape of the impressive stadium as its foundation whilst reflecting key moments of the tournament, paired with the iconic UEFA Champions League trophy designed in a style which creates a feeling of ultimate pride, quality and achievement associated with the UEFA Champions League final.

The initial idea that led to the creation of a new identity for each final was to develop a specific design with a distinctive flavour of the host city.

 

From: http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/news/newsid=1715843.html