April 14 – The Netherlands, Poland, Belgium and Wales have all bid to stage the 2023 Nations League final four, European governing body UEFA has announced.
In a statement, UEFA said that “it has received declarations of interest from four bidders to host the 2022/23 UEFA Nations League finals, to be held from 14 to 18 June 2023, following the deadline of 13 April.”
“Declarations of interest were submitted by the football associations of Belgium, Poland, Netherlands and Wales.”
Bidders will have until October 5 to submit their dossiers before UEFA will award the hosting rights in January next year.
The four countries feature in the same group in the third edition of the Nations League which will kick off this June. The winner will likely stage the final four. Two years ago, the Dutch had hoped to organise the competition in Amsterdam’s Johan Cruyff Arena and Rotterdam’s De Kuip, but Oranje failed to win their group.
Wales are part of a five-nation UK and Ireland bid to host Euro 2028. Poland last staged a major UEFA match when Villareal won the Europa League final against Manchester United in Gdansk in May last year.
Belgium must rank as outsiders to host the final four. The Belgian FA wants to stage the mini-tournament in both Brussels and Liege, but the national stadium in the capital doesn’t meet UEFA requirements, with renovations long overdue.
Belgium failed to host Euro 2020 matches after plans to build a new national stadium never materialised. At the Koning Boudewijnstadion, known as the Heysel, 39 supporters lost their lives during the European Cup final between Liverpool and Juventus in 1985.
Previously, Portugal and Italy hosted the finals of the Nations League, a competition UEFA introduced in 2018 in a bid to replace friendlies with more competitive matches and resuscitate the international game.
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