England Could Complete The Treble
An Arsenal victory in the Champions League Final would be historic
Arsenal play Paris St-Germain in tomorrow night’s UEFA Champions League final, with a 5pm kick-off live on TNT Sports 1. For the first time in Champions League history, the final will not be free to air in the UK, with TNT Sports’ owners, Warner Bros Discovery, refusing to give in to pressure from UK Prime Minister and Arsenal fan Sir Keir Starmer.
The BBC screened the final live in 1994, but in every other season from 1992/93 until 2015 it was free on ITV, before BT Sport, and latterly TNT Sports, continued making it free for the next decade. Now, the cheapest legal UK access is via an HBO Max subscription, which starts at £4.99 per month. HBO Max is available at no extra cost to Sky Sports subscribers.
A paywalled final is likely to be the case next season too, as 2026/27 is the final season of TNT Sports’ current UK rights cycle. From 2027/28, Paramount+ has the rights to the Champions League, while the Europa League and Conference League will move to Sky Sports. It remains to be seen whether they will continue TNT’s paywalling of the finals or revert to making them free to all.
Highlights of tomorrow’s Champions League final will be on the BBC Sport website and across BBC social media channels 15 minutes after the trophy lift, before later coverage on BBC iPlayer and BBC TV.
If Arsenal win the trophy, it will be back-to-back new winners of the Champions League, something that has not happened since 1993. It would also be just the seventh such streak in the history of Europe’s top club competition.
Three English Winners
