Nõmme Kalju to play Conference League home match against Linfield in Pärnu
Estonian football club Nõmme Kalju will play their UEFA Conference League first qualifying round home match against Northern Ireland's Linfield on July 9 at Pärnu's Seaside Stadium instead of Tallinn.
Nõmme Kalju begin their European campaign this year with the first qualifying round of the UEFA Conference League. The home match against Northern Irish side Linfield will take place on July 9, but not in Tallinn; instead, it will be held at the Pärnu Seaside Stadium, more than 100 kilometers away from the club's home base.
The relocation is due to several factors. The club's regular stadium, Hiiu, does not meet UEFA requirements for European competition matches. Previously, Kalju played European games at the Kadriorg Stadium, but it has been closed for renovations following the U-17 European Championship final tournament. Meanwhile, the A. Le Coq Arena is unavailable because a Champions League match involving Flora is scheduled there just one day earlier, according to Soccernet.ee.
As a result, the only available option was the Pärnu stadium, which had already been heavily used in early summer: in addition to home matches of Pärnu Vaprus, it hosted three Estonian Cup finals (U-19, women's, and men's), a men's national team match against the Faroe Islands, and a women's national team match against Bosnia and Herzegovina. "It was the only possible place," Kalju president Kuno Tehva told Soccernet.
The return leg in Belfast will take place a week later, on July 16.
