Tonight at 17.00 CET, FC Midtjylland and FC Copenhagen are scheduled to clash in the Danish Cup final at Parken Stadium, and FC Midtjylland chairman Claus Steinlein said staging the final at Parken on a permanent basis would give Copenhagen an unfair advantage.
Steinlein, speaking to Viaplay, framed the issue plainly: "If you ask me professionally, it is a Europa League place that we are playing for. Should FC Copenhagen have the advantage of home ground every time they are in the final? I think that is a huge advantage. The Europa League is a huge competition to qualify for, and in that way, I think it is unfair that FC Copenhagen has home ground every time." The chairman’s remarks come on the eve of a match that pits two of the country’s largest clubs against each other on Copenhagen’s home turf.
As a fan, Steinlein said he enjoys seeing the Cup Final played in Parken, and he was explicit about that ambivalence when he told Viaplay he is torn on the question. But he also spelled out the professional calculation that underpins his objection: "FC Copenhagen are in their own dressing room, they feel at home, and have their own stand. It is too big an advantage when you see the importance of the sporting value of the match. That is why I have been a professional advocate for us to move the matches to some stadiums."
The numbers behind the claim are simple and binary: Parken is FC Copenhagen’s home stadium, and if the Cup final is staged there every season, Copenhagen will repeatedly play the most consequential one-off game of the year inside familiar surroundings. Steinlein tied that recurring venue choice directly to the sporting stakes of Europa League qualification — the spot both clubs can realistically be contesting in cup competition.
There is a clear tension in Steinlein’s position. He admitted he likes the spectacle of the Cup Final in Parken as a supporter, yet as chairman he says the arrangement distorts competition when the national arena becomes the recurring setting. The friction is not hypothetical: his critique hinges on the match’s single-match prize and the psychological, logistical and partisan benefits a home stadium confers when the stakes are continental qualification.
Steinlein did not frame his comments as a complaint about tonight’s game itself; he warned more broadly about a structural imbalance if the final remains anchored at Parken "every season." That is why he said he has advocated moving Cup Finals to other venues: to remove the repeat-home problem and protect what he called the sporting value of the match. He made the point in both professional and personal tones — alternating between a fan’s enjoyment and a club executive’s insistence on level ground.
Framing it as copenhagen vs midtjylland, Steinlein’s remarks are a reminder that venue choice can be a competitive factor, not only a logistical one. The Cup final will be settled on the field at 17.00 CET tonight, but his comments leave the question of where the final should be staged next season unresolved and likely to be raised again if Copenhagen reaches another final at Parken.
Steinlein ends where he began: enjoying the spectacle as a fan, scrutinizing the structure as a professional. Whether his push to move Cup Finals to other stadiums gains traction will depend on how strongly clubs and competition organizers weigh the trade-off between tradition and perceived fairness. For now, the game at Parken will answer the only immediate question both sides can control — which team wins the trophy tonight — while the venue debate that Steinlein laid out remains very much alive off the pitch.
