Bayern Munich's Allianz Arena to host the 2022 Champions League Final

Bayern Munich’s Allianz Arena is to stage the 2022 UEFA Champions League final, European football's governing body has announced.

Bayern’s 75,000-seat colosseum - one of Europe’s biggest, best, and most state-of-the-art venues - will be the venue for the crowning act of the European football season ten years on from its last Champions League final.

According to UEFA’s stadium categories, it meets the criteria to be considered four-star, elite stadiums – the highest rating in the world, while it has already played host to many high-profile matches and will be Germany's host venue at the 2020 UEFA European Football Championship.

Watch: Take a look around the Allianz Arena

Beyond hosting 17 Bundesliga matches, plus several domestic and European cup matches every season, the Allianz Arena has history as a Champions League Final host. In 2012, thousands of Müncheners watched their beloved side contest the final against Chelsea. A year after its inauguration, the stadium also hosted six matches of the 2006 FIFA World Cup, including the opening game (a 4-2 victory for Germany over Costa Rica) and France’s 1-0 semi-final victory over Portugal.

All of which has contributed to the Allianz Arena being an unmitigated success for over a decade. The Arena replaced the Olympiastadion, built for the 1972 Summer Olympics, as Bayern’s home for the 2005/2006 season and has become an immediately-recognisable feature in the landscape of the Bavarian capital.

The stadium’s exterior skin can be illuminated in any combination of up to 16 million colours to reflect the events taking place inside, and around the city. When the stadium glows crimson red, Bayern fans and the travelling support fill each one of the 75,000 seats in Germany’s second-largest stadium.

The Allianz Arena has a capacity for 75,000 spectators. - 2018 DFL

The last time Munich hosted the final, in May 2012, lives long in the memory of Bayern fans for all the wrong reasons. Thomas Müller looked to have won the match late on, only for Didier Drogba to equalise with two minutes remaining and send the match into extra time and then penalties, which the home side ultimately lost 4-3.

Bayern fans will no doubt be delighted with the prospect of a chance to avenge that 2012 defeat and capture European glory at home in 2022.