We know all 6 finalists of all 3 UEFA competitions - Champions League, UEFA Europa League, and Europa Conference League. Today we’ll see details about these finals but also stamps related to football and clubs playing in the finals.
UEFA Europa League - Sevilla vs. Roma
The first pair we’ll cover is Sevilla – Roma. They shall meet in UEFA Europa League final at Budapest's Puskás Aréna on 31 May 2023. Europa League was founded in 1971, and rebranded in 2009.
Centenary of Seville FC – 2005/03/01
Spain
Denomination: 0.35 €
Sevilla is the most dominant club in the Europa League with 6 titles (2006, 2007, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2020). It’s worth to mention that Sevilla hasn’t lost a single Europa League final. 4 teams have 3 titles – Inter Milan (1991, 1994, 1998), Liverpool (1973, 1976, 2001), Juventus (1977, 1990, 1993), and Atletico Madrid (2010, 2012, 2018).
In the last 20 years, clubs from Spain were champions of the Europa League 11 times (Sevilla 6, Atletico Madrid 3, Villareal 1, Valencia 1). This only shows how competitive La Liga is.
AS Roma, 90th anniversary – 2017/06/13
San Marino
Denomination: 2 €
On the other side shall be Roma, also the club with the great history. Roma has 1 title in this competition. Actually, it happened in season 1961 in Inter-Cities Fairs Cup when Roma won the title against Birmingham City (1st match 2:2, 2nd match 2:0).
It’s always ungrateful to try to predict the outcome, but I would give more chance to win the title to Sevilla.
UEFA Europa Conference League - Fiorentina vs. West Ham
Now it’s time to cover the second pair of this year’s finalists. These are Fiorentina and West Ham. They shall meet in UEFA Europa Conference League final at Prague's Eden Arena on 7 June 2023. Both finalists are also clubs with a lot of history.
Gabriel Batistuta – 2004/11/01
Grenada
Denomination: 2 EC$ (East Caribbean dollar)
Fiorentina is the 2nd Italian club in this year’s finals. The club had been founded on August 29, 1926. Since that time, Fiorentina won: Serie A 2 times (68/69, 55/56), European Cup Winners' Cup (60/61), Italian Cup 6 times (00/01, 95/96, 74/75, 65/66, 60/61, 39/40), Italian Super Cup (96/97), Serie B 3 times (93/94, 38/39, 30/31), Mitropa Cup (1966).
Bobby Moore 1941-1993 – 1996/05/04
UK
Denomination: 25 p (British penny)
The second finalist is another club with a great history – West Ham. It’s well-known for it’s fan base, but West Ham also had successes, mostly in the past. They won the FA Cup three times (1964, 1975 and 1980), European Cup Winners' Cup (1965), and Intertoto Cup (1999).
This is maybe the hardest pair to predict, but I would give a slight advantage to West Ham here.
UEFA Champions League - Manchester City vs. Inter
The last pair in this year’s finals is Manchester City – Inter. They will meet in 2022/23 UEFA Champions League final which will take place at Istanbul's Atatürk Olympic Stadium on Saturday 10 June 2023.
Football Association Cup Final, 150th Anniversary – 2022/05/10
Jersey
Denomination: 56 p to 3.65 £
When you hear Manchester City today, one of the first things that will come to your mind is probably - petrodollars, taking into account that Sheikh Mansour's Abu Dhabi United Group has 86.21% shares. Still, Manchester City is a club with a long tradition, and had been founded in 1880 as St. Mark's. It’s known as Manchester City from 1894.
Let’s compare this to Manchester United which had been founded as Newton Heath LYR F.C. in 1878, and renamed to Manchester United F.C. in 1902.
Of courses, petrodollars play their part, but I just wanted to mention that City is a club with a long tradition. So far, City won nine league titles, six FA Cups, eight League Cups, six FA Community Shields, and one European Cup Winners' Cup, and it seems they’ll keep winning more trophies.
Inter, 100th anniversary – 2018/03/13
San Marino
Denomination: 2 €
On the other side of the court will be the 3rd Italian finalist this year – Inter Milan. So far, Inter won: 1 UEFA Champions League (09/10), 2 European Champion Clubs' Cup (64/65, 63/64), 1 FIFA Club World Cup (10/11), 19 Serie A (20/21, 09/10, 08/09, 07/08, 06/07, 05/06, 88/89, 79/80, 70/71, 65/66, 64/65, 62/63, 53/54, 52/53, 39/40, 37/38, 1929/30, 1919/20, 1909/10), 3 UEFA Cups (97/98, 93/94, 90/91), 8 Italian Cups (21/22, 10/11, 09/10, 05/06, 04/05, 81/82, 77/78, 38/39), 7 Italian Super Cups (22/23, 21/22, 10/11, 08/09, 06/07, 05/06, 89/90), 2 Intercontinental Cups (65/66, 64/65).
You can easily notice that in all 3 finals there are Italian clubs, so there is a great chance that at least one title, if not all 3 of them, go to Italy. Inter will definitely try to make history. While Manchester City with Pep Guardiola and Erling Haaland looks like it’s from another universe, nothing is impossible.
Conclusion
Today we’ve seen few interesting stamps related to this year UEFA competitions finalists. If you’re interested in more sport-related stamps, feel free to check following articles:
Olympic Philately
