Real Madrid’s Bernabeu Stadium has won the bid to stage the 2010 Champions League final after Wembley Stadium lost out because of tax reasons.

The English venue was discounted after failing to provide assurances that players competing in the final would not be taxed by the British government.

Rival bids from Munich and Berlin were also overlooked, while Arsenal lost out to Hamburg for the 2010 Uefa Cup final.

A Uefa statement read: “The home stadiums of Real Madrid and Hamburg were chosen on the basis of capacity, facilities, accommodation and security, among other considerations.”

But Uefa President Michel Platini added: “The concerns we had over players being taxed were minimised by the English FA but not confirmed by the British government.”

Uefa maintains that footballers should be taxed in their country of domicile and that taxing them separately in every country in which they play matches would be both unfair and unnecessarily complicated.