By Andrew Warshaw
April 14 – Two weeks before the deadline for final bid dossiers to be submitted to UEFA, Turkey looks to have cemented its status as favourites to stage the semi finals and final of Euro 2020.
No applications to host the pan-European tournament, brainchild of UEFA boss Michel Platini and being staged in 13 cities, will be accepted after midnight on April 25 – with a final decision to be taken by UEFA in September.
Originally 32 countries declared their interest in bidding for host city status but that has now been narrowed down to around 25. Member countries can bid for two packages of matches, the first involving three group stage games and a knockout round match, the other the semi-finals and final.
UEFA want the latter to take place at one venue and the Turks, who lost out by one vote to France to host 2016, say they have already been privately given the green light despite a number of negative factors, including a damaging match-fixing scandal, surprisingly poor attendances at the FIFA under-20 World Cup and regular fan disturbances.
“We think we will be awarded the two semifinals and finals and we deserve it after bidding for the last three tournaments,” said Turkish FA vice-president Servet Yardimci. “It’s high time we were successful and UEFA president Michel Platini has given that hint to us.”
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