Praise for Cardiff from UEFA President

UEFA'S President has heaped praise on Cardiff, saying the city "delivered nothing short of excellence" in the week of the Champions League final.

In a thank-you letter to First Minister Carwyn Jones, Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin also thanked Cardiff for its warm welcome, describing the capital as a small city which "welcomed with open arms many thousands of football fans in an outstanding spirit of cooperation, protection and pure enjoyment."

The letter reads:

Dear Carwyn,

"Thank you for your letter of 8 June 2017. From my perspective, I must first say that the words ‘thank you' feel perhaps a little light in return for the remarkable and professional series of football events that took place in Cardiff during the first week of June 2017!

"As you say in your letter, Cardiff is a small city, but it welcomed with open arms many thousands of football fans in an outstanding spirit of cooperation, protection and pure enjoyment."

"Thank you, Carwyn, for all your support. There is no doubt that it was a lot of responsibility to shoulder and the city of Cardiff and all its service providers delivered nothing short of excellence.

Yours sincerely,

UEFA

Aleksander Ceferin

President

The final saw Real Madrid beat Juventus 4-1 in a thrilling game at the National Stadium of Wales (the Principality Stadium was renamed for the event).

Over four days, tens of thousands of fans soaked up the atmosphere at a fantastic Champions League Festival in Cardiff Bay and a crowd of more than 22,000 saw Lyon beat Paris Saint-Germain to win the Women's Champions League after a thrilling penalty shootout at Cardiff City Stadium.

The UEFA Champions League Final attracted the highest ever number of people into Cardiff city centre - smashing the previous record by almost 44,000 people.

Cardiff Council Leader Cllr Huw Thomas said: "The atmosphere in Cardiff over the Champions League Final weekend was world-beating.

"Everyone worked so hard to make this event a success. All the partners involved and our wonderful city did the UEFA Champions League proud and showed the globe how great a place Cardiff and Wales is."

The Council leader added: "We showed we can host the biggest event in the world. This was a massive coup, a tremendous game and it will be remembered for years to come."

The First Minister this week thanked the Football Association for Wales, UEFA, Cardiff Council, South Wales Police and all the emergency services for their hard work and success in delivering the events.

Mr Jones said: "One month ago, Cardiff hosted the greatest sporting event of the year. The eyes of the world were on Wales and we delivered.

"The Champions League final was a culmination of months of hard work and planning to ensure our visitors were kept safe, well looked after and given a fantastic Welsh welcome.

"I would also like to thank fans for their good behaviour during their time in Cardiff. It was wonderful to see thousands of French, Spanish and Italian fans enjoying themselves in our capital city and I hope they go back home with fond memories of Wales, and return again in the future.

"The challenges that came with being the smallest city ever to host such an event should not be underestimated and it makes me very proud to see what Cardiff achieved.

 "There will be millions of people across the globe who will have sat up and taken notice of Wales as a place to visit, work and do business. We are determined to build on this great success."

• Watch thousands of fans enjoy Cardiff city centre ahead of Champions League Final:https://www.facebook.com/pg/cardiff.council1/videos/?ref=page_internal

• Highest footfall ever recorded in Cardiff on June 3:

http://www.prnewslink.net/releases/15295.html