The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) on Friday 23 April excluded Bilbao and Dublin from the host cities of the Euro which will be held from 11 June to 11 July, for lack of guarantees on the reception of spectators, reallocating to Seville the matches planned in the Basque Country and sharing those of Dublin between Saint Petersburg and London.
Already postponed for a year due to the pandemic, the tournament will finally take place in eleven cities across eleven countries: Munich, in the hot seat, has been confirmed and will welcome the Germany-France shock on June 15, while it There was no longer any doubt about Baku, Rome, Bucharest, Glasgow, Copenhagen, Budapest and Amsterdam.
Imagined by former UEFA president Michel Platini, this unprecedented pan-European format was initially to be held in thirteen cities in thirteen countries, then twelve after the eviction of Brussels at the end of 2017, in the face of obstacles to the construction of its great stadium.
UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin is delighted to be able to “Guarantee a safe and festive environment”, with spectators “To all matches”, or a requirement posed in March by the authority despite the health crisis.
“There is a bit of work ahead of us, we are starting over – camp, travel, all the logistics”, meanwhile tweeted the Polish Zbigniew Boniek, vice-president of UEFA, even before the official decision.
Imbroglio around the Munich case
Saint Petersburg, which was already among the host cities, will therefore recover three new matches in the first round, namely Poland-Slovakia, Sweden-Slovakia and Sweden-Poland. “Today, we are going on 50% [de spectateurs]. This is the limit confirmed by UEFA. If there is the possibility of changing, it will be an increase “, underlined Friday in the newspaper Sport-Express the president of the Russian organizing committee, Alexeï Sorokine.
For its part, London will resume the round of 16 scheduled in Dublin, which will therefore be added to the seven meetings that the British capital was to host in the legendary Wembley stadium, including the semi-finals and the final.
Not planned in the initial organization, Seville had for several days been the preferred solution for the Spanish federation to resume the four meetings scheduled in Bilbao, excluded Wednesday by UEFA for having set too drastic sanitary conditions for the reception of the public. Faced with this decision “Unilateral”, the Basque organizers have let it be known that they plan to take the case to court to recover the expenses of 1.2 million euros already incurred.
For several weeks already, Budapest, Saint Petersburg, Baku, Amsterdam, Bucharest, Glasgow, Copenhagen, Rome and London had all promised gauges between 25% and 100%.
Munich will host “14,500 spectators at least”, UEFA said in its press release on Friday. But, a few minutes after this announcement, the president of the German Football Association made a different speech: “We are delighted [d’accueillir des matchs à Munich] “, did he declare, “Maybe even in front of the public… If the development of the pandemic allows it. “ A position defended in the afternoon by the mayor of Munich, Dieter Reiter: “A week ago, I couldn’t say if there would be spectators, or how many. I can hardly say it today; to date, there has been no promise of any kind to guarantee the reception of spectators. “