London will host the final and
semi-finals of the 2020
European football
championship, which will
exceptionally be held in 13
different countries, UEFA boss
Michel Platini announced
Friday.
The quarter-finals will
meanwhile be hosted by
Munich (Germany), Baku
(Azerbaijan), Saint Petersburg
(Russia) and Rome (Italy), the
president of European
football’s governing body
revealed at a ceremony in
Geneva, Switzerland.
London beat its sole rival
Munich for the top bid, as
observers expected.
Ahead of the vote, top German
football officials had hinted
they might leave the path free
to England if in return London
supports its bid to host the
tournament in 2024, when it
returns to the single-host
format.
For the 60th anniversary of
the European Championship,
first held in 1960, UEFA
decided to organise the
tournament across the whole
continent.
In all 19 countries bid for a
chance to host Euro 2020
games.
On top of one quarter-final,
Rome, Munich, Baku and St
Petersburg will each host
three group stage games. Only
hosts that had stadia with a
capacity of 60,000 were
considered.
Copenhagen (Denmark),
Bucharest (Romania),
Amsterdam (Netherlands),
Dublin (Ireland), Bilbao
(Spain), Budapest (Hungary),
Brussels (Belgium) and
Glasgow (Scotland),
meanwhile, will each host one
last-16 game and three group
stage ones.
London, Munich, Rome,
Brussels or Glasgow are
experienced hosts of major
sporting events, having
already hosted World Cup,
Euro or Champion League
games.
FIRST TIME
But this is the first time cities
like Baku, Budapest or
Bucharest will host a big
tournament.
The stadia in Budapest and
Baku for the Euro 2020 are
still waiting to be built.
For this jubilee tournament,
UEFA said it wanted a “Euro
for Europe.”
“This is a historic moment
because we’ll be able to bring
this competition to all the
countries of Europe and
especially to countries that
would never otherwise have
the chance to host such a
competition,” Platini said as he
announced the winning bids.
In the past, a single country -
or at the most two, like
Austria and Switzerland in
2008, or Poland and Ukraine in
2012 - hosted the finals.
The experiment, which was
Platini’s brainchild, will be a
one-off event however, with
the 2024 tournament to be
hosted again by a single
country.
Minsk (Belarus), Sofia
(Bulgaria), Cardiff (Wales),
Skopje (Macedonia), Jerusalem
(Israel) and Stockholm
(Sweden) came away empty-
handed.
There were also concerns
ahead of the vote that
Thursday’s referendum on
Scottish independence may
endanger Glasgow’s bid.
In its evaluation report
published in early September,
UEFA had noted that “the
situation may have to be re-
assessed should Scotland
become independent of the
UK.”
In the end, Scotland voted to
remain part of Britain with 55
per cent of the vote, and
Platini’s announcement that
Glasgow would be among the
Euro 2020 hosts was greeted
with cheers in Geneva.
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