By Andrew Warshaw
April 25 – Prospective Euro 2020 host cities were putting the finishing touches to their bid dossiers today as UEFA prepared to unveil the names of candidates in the frame to stage the pan-European tournament.
One venue per city will be used and European football’s governing body will announce the final list of contenders tomorrow, with the 13 lucky winners to be chosen in mid-September. Importantly, countries will have to qualify and berths will not automatically be awarded to the national teams of the selected host cities.
British federations face a race within a race as London – mostly likely Wembley – goes head to head with Glasgow, Cardiff and Dublin to stage group games and a round of 16 tie.
The English FA has been quietly working behind the scenes but confirmed they have strategically submitted two separate bids – one for the early stages and a second for the semifinals and finals just in case odds-on favourites Turkey slip up.
FA general secretary Alex Horne said: “We are bidding for either of the two packages available and with our recent experience of hosting two UEFA Champions League Finals in the last four years we believe that Wembley Stadium and London represent a strong bid for UEFA to consider. We recognise UEFA is considering many strong bids from a number of candidate cities and we welcome the opportunity to put forward our bid.”
UEFA president Michel Platini’s plan to see the 60th anniversary of the European Championship marked by the finals taking place across the Continent has been met with cautious approval even though several cities have had to pull out in the last few days.
Croatia were the latest withdrawal from the race, while the Belgians said they were in. Russia has formally submitted its bid to host three group stage games and one quarterfinal with sports minister Valery Mutko saying St. Petersburg would be their chosen host city.
With the group stages likely to be divided into geographical zones, it is all about second-guessing who might get what and there could be as many as 25 bids lodged with UEFA by tonight’s midnight deadline.
Scotland announced its candidature on Thursday and SFA chief executive Stewart Regan said: “It’s highly unlikely that there will be four winning bids from the United Kingdom and Ireland. So our job is to try and convince UEFA that Glasgow is one of the preferred options for that zone, if you like.”
“It would actually help us if England gets the package for the semi-finals and final. It would mean England would have to be in a geographical zone which would support one or more stadiums. You would expect two, possibly three of the bids from UK and Ireland to succeed but not all four. So someone’s not going to be successful.”
Cardiff’s bid will hopefully be boosted by hosting the UEFA Super Cup this summer, says Football Association of Wales (FAW) chief executive Jonathan Ford. “There’s a lot of work gone into this,” said Ford. “There’s a whole load of stuff that needs to be put together which is of course what we’ve been doing over the last six months to a year.”
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