The trek to Moscow for the Champions League final brings in its wake curses for the late opening of Wembley Stadium. London was in the running to play host to the 2008 final along with Moscow, Berlin and Seville but when the decision was taken, in October 2006, Wembley was unfinished. As things turned out, it would have been the ideal venue for this year’s final, but Uefa decided against awarding its showpiece to what was then a building site.

Not that Uefa needs much of an excuse to overlook London. Wembley was expected to be the setting for the 2010 final but it lost out last month to Madrid’s Bernabéu and the FA fears that it will be overlooked for 2011 as well. The reason given by Michael Platini, the Uefa president, was the UK’s unique tax laws on bonuses for athletes, which mean that foreign players would be forced to give a share of their earnings from the match to Revenue & Customs. Despite that, the City of Manchester Stadium is the venue for this year’s Uefa Cup final.

A Uefa spokesman denied yesterday that the staging of this month’s final at the Luzhniki Stadium had caused “any major problems”, although fans facing logistical and financial problems to reach Moscow would disagree. The spokesman also said that “there is no change scheduled” to the process by which finals are awarded, despite much criticism.

Two years ago, the idea of reform was gaining support within Uefa, with one suggestion that finals could be rotated around a permanent list of reliable venues, or locations chosen at the semi-final stage. But Uefa has argued that stadiums need to be selected far in advance for planning reasons, such as sorting out marketing, logistics and television contracts.

At the moment, prospective hosts apply, Uefa officials visit, shortlists and dossiers are produced and decisions are taken at a time to suit Uefa’s executive committee, which is chaired by Platini. The Russians believed that they were due: the Luzhniki Stadium staged the 1999 Uefa Cup final and had been lobbying for years for a Champions League final.

At the same Uefa meeting in October 2006, the 2009 final was given to Rome’s Olympic Stadium, despite the Serie A corruption scandal and persistent hooliganism in Italy.

Uefa says that the committee’s decision is made on “criteria such as stadium capacity, safety and security, access, transport, supporters’ facilities and commercial potential”. There is no mention of sporting heritage and the last factor is evidently the priority. With revenue streams in Western Europe more or less at their peak, the governing body is increasingly interested in the opportunities offered by Eastern Europe, seeing a chance to grow the Champions League brand and add value to television contracts.

Platini, keen to woo smaller and emerging nations, is well aware that half of Uefa’s 53 member associations are from Eastern Europe. Awarding the 2012 European Championship to Poland and Ukraine was a sign that the president is eager to look east. And where will next year’s Uefa Cup final be held? Istanbul’s Sükrü Saraçoglu stadium, even though the city’s Atatürk Stadium proved an utterly inadequate location for the 2005 Champions League final.