Turks take pole position in race for hosting Euro 2020 final rounds

By Andrew Warshaw
September 24 – The English FA have conceded that Turkey are emerging as favourites to host the latter stages of Euro 2020. Although England and Germany are among a group of nations with aspirations to stage the semi-finals and final of the one-off pan-European tournament, UEFA president Michel Platini’s preference for Turkey looks set to give the country a leading advantage.

After Istanbul missed out on hosting the Olympics the same year, the back-up plan was always to bid for the Euros after Platini had said he felt it would not be possible for Turkey to host an Olympics and a European Championship in the same year (Turkey had also lost out to france in the bidding for Euro 2016 The Turks have subsequently emerged as favourites despite a number of negative factors, including a damaging match-fixing scandal, surprisingly poor attendances at the recent FIFA under-20 World Cup and regular fan disturbances – most recently this weekend with the abandonment of the Galatasaray vs Besiktas derby match.

UEFA will stage the 2020 event across 13 cities and says 32 countries have expressed an interest in hosting games. The semis and the final will take place in the same city and English FA general secretary Alex Horne said: “We’ve taken some soundings. There’s a sympathy for Turkey and it feels like they are the front-runners. We get the politics around Istanbul, having not got the Olympics.”

Final bid dossiers have to be submitted to European football’s governing body by 25 April next year, with a decision due on September 25.

Member countries have the chance to 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.

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