Euro 2020 To Be Held Across Europe

[Arsenal Till I Die]

The 2020 European Championship finals will be held in a number of cities across Europe, Uefa has announced.
It means there will be no one country hosting the tournament, which will have expanded to 24 teams by then.

The Football Association has already put forward Wembley to European governing body Uefa as a possible venue for the final.

Wales, Scotland and the Republic of Ireland have also expressed their interest in staging matches to Uefa.
And Jonathan Ford, chief executive of the FA of Wales, has previously said the FAW would want Cardiff to be a "host city" under Platini's plan.

Following Thursday's announcement, Ford said the plan was a "fantastic idea" but stressed fans should not have to travel long distances at great expense.

"The idea of hub areas should be very seriously considered. We don't want fans going from east to west," he said.
"The proximity of say Manchester, Cardiff, Belfast and Dublin is even closer than one end of Ukraine to the other. There's many a situation I can see where you can have group hubs to make it a great fan experience."

A spokesperson for the Football Supporters' Federation said the move was "one which will divide fans' opinions".
"When the idea of a pan-European tournament was first proposed our primary concern was that supporters across the continent were properly consulted before anything was set in stone.

"The FSF will speak to Football Supporters Europe to see what fans from across the continent make of this move."
Uefa's executive committee took the decision at a meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Thursday.

Uefa general secretary Gianni Infantino told a press conference after the meeting: "Some important decisions have been taken.
"Uefa Euro 2020 will be staged across the continent, in various major cities, following a decision taken today. A Euro for Europe follows an initial idea by Uefa president Michel Platini, who described it as 'an idea I feel really passionate about'.
"The response has been extremely positive from all the national associations."

Infantino confirmed that only Turkey, who had had initially bid to host Euro 2020, opposed the decision through the country's Uefa vice-president Senes Erzik.

The next competition in 2016 will be hosted by France and will be played with 24 qualifiers at the finals.

Infantino added the bidding process for the host cities would start in March and decisions would be made in the spring of 2014.
Platini, who won the tournament in 1984 with France, floated the idea as a way of avoiding high costs at a time of financial hardship in many countries.

Higher than expected costs and building delays caused problems for the 2012 tournament in Poland and Ukraine.
"It will be a lot easier from a financial perspective for all the countries," Platini said in June.

"If you need to build airports or 10 stadiums in a country, this would be rather easy because it would be one stadium per host city."
Former FA chief executive Mark Palios to BBC Radio 5 live: "The big downside is fans' travel, both in terms of getting the opportunity to follow your team and knowing where you're going to be based.

"Hopefully they can plan something which takes that into account. Otherwise it's a sensible suggestion by Uefa. It gives everybody a chance to share in it rather than just the larger countries."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20631963

[northbank123]

Moreover what the fuck is the point in having 24 teams in the Euros? There's enough dross in the 16-team tournament, look at the calibre of sides who finish 3rd and 4th in their qualifying groups because these are the sides who'll be regularly competing for qualification now.

International football is a fucking embarrassment.

[donaldo]

They could have 64 teams in it Wales and Scotland still wouldnt qualify

[falkirk goon]

They could have 64 teams in it Wales and Scotland still wouldnt qualify

Thats a tad harsh..prob true though

[arseofacrow]

They could have 64 teams in it Wales and Scotland still wouldnt qualify

[QuartzGooner]

16 teams worked fine.

No harm in trying all the cities for a one off and seeing how it goes, as long as fans get enough notice to book tickets.

[northbank123]

Quartz - problem is when fans are trying to work out which city they'll be playing in if they get through with the various permutations. E.g. if England win the group we'll be playing in Madrid but if we finish second we'll be playing in Prague: what do fans do then? I'm sure UEFA will claim they'll try and counteract that by having those two prospective venues not too far away but at the end of the day if you're going to spread it effectively then you're going to have to take a risk on these things. Not really opposed to the idea as a one-off concept but practically not a fan.

Don - I mean it when I say I wouldn't want Wales to qualify when we're this shit. It was embarrassing that Ireland got to the last Euros, they had an unbelievable draw with Russia, Slovenia and Slovakia in the group and then Estonia, the worst side to ever make the play-offs and what the hell was the point in them being there? I'm desperate to see Wales in a major tournament (a World Cup tbh) in my lifetime but expanding the Euros so that half of Europe can qualify and I can watch us get embarrassed by some very fucking average nations wouldn't bring me much cheer. If Wales ever qualify, I want it to be on merit and not because of UEFA's greed.

[Barriecuda]

Maybe they're trying this as an experiment to examine the viability of a European "super league"...?

24 nations (if not 32 by then), 16 cities, might have a bit of a home crowd advantage for some of them? I mean if there's a game held in England, let's say, the English fans are going to be pretty agitated if the England v. Whoever game is over in Spain (and vice versa). Is it going to be the highest "ranked" teams get to have home matches? God knows that "ranked" teams already have enough advantages when it comes to qualifying...

I just don't think it's well thought-out at all. Call me cynical, but Platini doesn't inspire confidence and this just seems like a move done with purely profit-maximization in mind.

[goonermarc]

Just about sums up what football has now turned in to.

Uefa have took the best competition in football and ruined it, 16 teams was the perfect amount in order to witness top class entertaining matches straight from the group stage. With the exception of one or two teams at either side of the spectrum all the teams were evenly matched, now we'll have drawn out boring mis-matches during the group stages much like the World Cup.

All purely driven by money, no more 30,000 seater stadiums hosting matches in the out post cities of the host countries. Make no mistake UEFA would have Wembley host every match if they could, 90,000 mugs paying £120 a ticket = $$$. Hence why they rewarded Wembley with the Champions League final again this year after it was so profitab...err 'successful' two years ago.

[safcftm]

Shit idea. One thing I like about the Euros and World Cups is going to fairly random places, smallish cities getting the chance to host big games, if its a few cities around europe it'll be the usual London and Manchester in England, Munich and Berlin in Germany, Madrid and Barcelona in Spain etc, boring as fuck. Travel shouldn't be too dreadful but I just think it'll take a lot of the occasion out of the tournament. Still, they'll probably make more money from it and that's all that matters in the end apparently

[arseofacrow]

An international version of the Champions League

[franksav63]

MEH!!!

[augie]

If fans boycotted then we will see how long this idea lasts It's a disgrace that fans are expected to trek all over europe and self financed too not like the uefa bigwig c**ts or the media hacks If ticket sales are poor then sponsors will in all likelihood reassess their financial commitment to the tournament and money is all uefa care about

You do all realise that this format will hit the fans of uk teams and us Irish more than anybody else (except maybe the scandanavians) ? Most of the countries are on mainland europe and travel between the different countries is easier and cheaper for them and uefa and fifa dont give a fcuk about the rest of us

[Top Londoner]

Euro 2020 will be held in 13 cities across the continent, Uefa said on Friday as it announced the first concrete plans for the tournament.

The Uefa secretary general Gianni Infantino said that no more than one venue per country would be permitted and that the semi-finals and final would all be played in the same stadium. The venues would be chosen in September next year, he added.

Uefa voted in December to stage the tournament in cities across the continent rather than one or two single hosts countries, in a radical departure from the traditional format for major tournaments.

European soccer's governing body said the move would allow smaller countries a slice of the action as they would not be able to stage unwieldy 24-team tournament on their own.

[SteveO 35]

Good idea - at least we won't have to put up with the whole bid process with corrupt delegates from UEFA being wined and dined by equally corrupt local officials for years on end

There's only a handful of cities worthy of hosting the Champions League final and so there should be for the Euros.

Can't see the problem with it at all