ANKARA (AA) - The Union of European Football Association (UEFA) has announced that 32 football federations made their bids to host the 2020 European Football Championship that will be played in 13 cities across Europe.
The UEFA Executive Committee on Friday has confirmed the list of associations that have declared an interest in hosting matches at the championship, according to the association’s website.
The associations are: “Armenia (Yerevan), Azerbaijan (Baku), Belarus (Minsk), Belgium (Brussels), Bulgaria (Sofia), Croatia (Zagreb), Czech Republic (Prague), Denmark (Copenhagen), England (London), Finland (Helsinki), France (Lyon), Macedonia (Skopje), Germany (Munich), Greece (Athens), Hungary (Budapest), Israel (Jerusalem), Italy (Rome, Milan), Kazakhstan (Astana), Netherlands (Amsterdam), Poland (Warsaw, Chorzow), Portugal (Lisbon, Porto), Republic of Ireland (Dublin), Romania (Bucharest), Russia (St Petersburg), Scotland (Glasgow), Serbia (Belgrade), Spain (Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao, Valencia), Sweden (Solna), Switzerland (Basel), Turkey (Istanbul), Ukraine (Kyiv, Donetsk) and Wales (Cardiff).”
UEFA President Michel Platini voiced his pleasure with huge interest, and added, “The finals will be a great celebration of football across European continent, and the 60th anniversary edition will be truly special, by really coming to the doorstep of all football fans."
The UEFA decided that the final tournament will be staged in 13 cities across Europe. The matches will be split into 12 standard packages with one additional one, including three group matches and one knockout round (round of 16 or quarter-final), and one package for the semi-finals and the final.
Turkish Football Federation officially applied on September 10 to UEFA for Istanbul's candidacy for being the venue for both semi final and final matches in 2020 European Football Championship. The application came after Istanbul lost a bid to host the 2020 Olympic Games.
The appointment of the host cities by the UEFA Executive Committee will take place on September 25, 2014.
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