The 2026 Champions League final is about far more than football, with Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain embodying the celebrity, fashion and soft power increasingly shaping the modern game, writes Miguel Delaney in his latest Inside Football newsletter.
Arsenal are fitting champions for a 2025-26 season that rewarded efficiency and punished waste. Over the last few days, Mikel Arteta has been working on one specific plan to try and solve what is arguably the most difficult challenge in football right now: somehow stopping Paris Saint-Germain running at you. There's nothing like it in world football right now, which is why you arguably have to prevent it from happening at all.
Arteta's work on this has been surrounded by a bit of mystique, which is where you can suddenly see the logic in Southampton's punishment for "Spygate". This is proper trade-secret stuff, as befitting the stakes of a Champions League final. Such mystique also fits the gravitas of the occasion. There's little like this fixture in sport outside the World Cup final.
For all the rightful frustration at Fifa trying to turn its own showpiece into a showbiz circus, though, there's also a certain mirth to it. It once again illustrates that the people at the top don't really know what they've got, or its true value. The truth is, you don't need such razzmatazz. The social elites will gravitate towards such matches anyway because of what they are, not because of what you try to make them. The football is enough.
These two finalists know that well. Arsenal have become a magnet for celebrities, with numerous famous fans. Among the biggest is Dua Lipa, who has naturally sought to attend a few games this season with her Chelsea-supporting boyfriend, Callum Turner. While the club do have a box just for celebrities and talent, insiders say one game required a short-notice request that saw Lipa go straight to friends among the players. They were, of course, only too quick to oblige.
PSG is arguably one of the few clubs that can trump Arsenal, but they have been much more concerted about it. The club long ago set up a VIP section called 'Le Cercle', specifically intended to make attending a PSG match like going to see the New York Knicks or LA Lakers: every celebrity in town wanting in. The French champions have duly had guest lists that include Leonardo DiCaprio, Beyonce, Jay-Z, Rihanna, Mick Jagger, Gigi Hadid and Kendall Jenner.
Crucially, such glamour goes hand in hand with how both clubs have also become fashion brands. You probably only have to step out onto the street beside you to see Arsenal's latest stylised jacket, or a PSG crest emblazoned on Air Jordan gear. The fact Paris and London are fashion centres is not a coincidence. These are two clubs that have prioritised "cool" more than any others in the game.
"Paris means fashion, style, design and diversity," Nasser Al-Khelaifi told a Harvard study, as they created an arm of the club to supercharge all of this. Hence the many Air Jordan link-ups. You, of course, don't have to tell me about the incongruity of making a hereditary monarchy with a criticised human rights record – which PSG's Qatar ownership is – "cool".
If all of this otherwise reads as quite superficial and trivial when we're bemoaning Fifa trying to create a circus out of the World Cup final – not to mention for this serious newsletter – there is a more serious point. You might have seen the statistic over the past few weeks that this is the first ever Champions League final between capital cities, and the first, including the old European Cup, since 1967. It is why the game could represent a historic juncture in that sense. This might point to the future.
Some of the reasons Arsenal and PSG are here – beyond the obvious, like the abilities of Luis Enrique and Arteta – are the same forces of centralisation affecting wider society. There is even a football centralisation, in that Paris and London are two of the three most fertile areas for producing players in the world, along with São Paulo. More pointedly, though, the major capital cities are attracting hugely disproportionate levels of investment, which naturally benefits their biggest football clubs.
Qatar specifically wanted to buy Paris Saint-Germain because it's in Paris. The Kroenkes, meanwhile, saw Arsenal as "a sleeping giant", as co-chair Josh Kroenke said to us in a media sit-down this week. The volume of fans celebrating the title more than vindicates that stance. Through that, Arsenal have a rare opportunity to really grow in a modern game that is otherwise largely saturated. They were already absolutely massive on the global internet, as the younger Kroenke also referenced. Much has since been made this week of their London cachet, especially with all that celebrity support.
One point industry figures also make is that Arsenal are hugely appealing to UK minority groups in a way other clubs struggle to match. That is due to everything from Ian Wright's influence to their enthusiastic – and early – development of the women's team. And now they're a winning team. That – in the words of one executive – is a mix that could end up being rocket fuel, especially in a football world where e-commerce is viewed as bringing the next great leap forward.
I have already written in this newsletter that Arsenal feel they can "unlock" something more in the squad, at a potentially opportune moment in football. Some of this can already be seen in a battle taking place before the Champions League final. Both Arsenal and PSG are two of the three main suitors for Atletico Madrid's Julian Alvarez. The other is Barcelona, who the striker would prefer, but it is telling that they currently can't get near the financials.
Now, as you walk around Budapest this weekend, there is Adidas Arsenal branding everywhere. One of the main thoroughfares has local hero Dominik Szoboszlai on one side and Gabriel on the other. Their red kits are hung above one of the primary tourist streets. The role of Adidas in this is instructive. Arsenal's deal with them had never been as big as those with Manchester United and Liverpool, but the strategy in their initial decks was about "winning London". This – again – was due to it being a cultural centre, but also a place where trends start. This very final may start a trend around London and football's major capitals.
As regards the actual football in that final, Timber's availability may well become the selection decision around which this game revolves. The Independent reported on Thursday that he had successfully come through training in a first session back with the team since his injury, and it does mean Arteta is giving serious thought to using him in some way. There's an obvious need, since Ben White is out, and that is exactly the area where Kvicha Kvaratskhelia will attack. He may well be the best forward in the world right now, so if you have the choice of one of the best right-backs coming in to challenge him... Again, it probably wouldn't even be under consideration if Timber wasn't one of the best athletes at the club, or if it wasn't a Champions League final.
I will do a big football preview of the final on The Independent site, which you will find here when it is live. All of this other business, however, does shape what happens on the pitch.
