UEFA Euro 2020 bids


The bidding process for the UEFA Euro 2020 is the process by which the location for the 16th European Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2020, was selected. The process officially began on 21 March 2012 with the intent to announce the hosts in late 2013 or early 2014. Despite interest from Turkey, a joint bid from Scotland, the Republic of Ireland and Wales and a proposal from Georgia and Azerbaijan, UEFA announced on 6 December 2012 that it had made the unprecedented decision to host the tournament in multiple cities across Europe.

Background

Euro 2020 will be the second tournament to involve 24 nations, following UEFA Euro 2016 four years previously.

Initial bidding process

It was initially envisaged that the tournament would be contained within one, two or three countries. In the case of multiple countries hosting the tournament, these countries would have to share a border. Assuming no changes from the Euro 2016 bidding process, the basic hosting requirements were to be as follows:
On 21 March 2012, UEFA announced that the bidding process would be as set out below in the event that more than one expression of interest in bidding was received by UEFA before 15 May 2012. Without a second bid, UEFA stated that the hosts would be confirmed on 15 May, subject to the confederation receiving the necessary guarantees. On 16 May 2012, UEFA announced that, because more than one national association had submitted their interest, it would begin its formal selection process and would allow any of the 54 national federations to bid, even if they chose not to declare an interest prior to the deadline. The timeline for the rest of the procedure was announced by UEFA on 30 June 2012.
PhaseDateNotes
First21 March 2012Declarations of interest formally invited
First15 May 2012Last date to submit a "letter of intent" to UEFA
Second30 June 2012UEFA to announce timeline for the rest of the bid process
SecondJuly / December 2012UEFA will hold discussions with all national associations
Second6 December 2012Decision that Euro 2020 will be spread across the European continent
Second28 March 2013Approval of the bidding requirements and bid regulations
SecondApril 2013Publication of the bid requirements and launch of the bidding phase
SecondSeptember 2013Formal confirmation of their bid by the candidates
SecondApril/May 2014Submission of bid dossiers and start of the evaluation phase
SecondSeptember 2014Appointment of the host cities by the UEFA Executive Committee

Expressions of interest

Turkey, a joint Scottish, Irish and Welsh bid and an Azerbaijani-Georgian bid all formally confirmed their interest in hosting Euro 2020 with UEFA in the spring of 2012. The deadline for declarations of interest was at midnight on 15 May 2012, but UEFA announced that further bids were welcome on 16 May.
By and large, this was seen as a disappointing group of hosts to select from, especially as favourite for the bid Turkey favoured a bid to host the 2020 Summer Olympics in its largest city Istanbul, held in the same year and seen as an obstacle to the hosting of Euro 2020. UEFA President Michel Platini was previously reported to have promised the tournament to Turkey.
The Celtic bid was a late bid that arose after the lack of interest throughout the rest of Europe, Turkey aside.
The Azerbaijani-Georgian coalition was doubted by some due to Azerbaijan's preference for a successful Baku bid for the 2020 Summer Olympics. On 15 May 2012, hours after the announcement of the three-way Irish, Scottish and Welsh bid, Georgian Sports Minister Vladimir Vardzelashvili announced his country's intention to declare an interest in hosting Euro 2020 alone. Nine days later, however, Azerbaijan notified UEFA that they planned to join forces with Georgia in a bid for Euro 2020 after Baku failed to make the IOC's shortlist as a contender to bid for the 2020 Olympic Games.
Several other nations made a less committed effort to the host the tournament, but never announced a firm interest. Among these were Belgium, a joint Bosnia and Herzegovina–Croatia–Serbia bid, a proposal from Romania alongside either Bulgaria or Hungary and sole bids from Germany and the Netherlands.

Change to pan-European tournament format

On 30 June 2012, at a press conference a day before the UEFA Euro 2012 Final, UEFA President Michel Platini suggested that instead of having one host country, Euro 2020 may be spread over "12 or 13 cities" across the continent. A similar system is in use for its male and female under-age competitions. On 6 December 2012, UEFA announced that the 2020 championships would be held in multiple cities all over Europe to mark 60 years of the tournament's existence. Platini reasoned that this was the logical decision at a time of financial difficulty across Europe.

Schedule of process

  • 28 March 2013: Approval of the bidding requirements and bid regulations
  • 26 April 2013: Publication of the bid regulations, bid requirements and launch of the bidding phase
  • 12 September 2013: Formal confirmation of candidate cities by their respective football associations
  • 20 September 2013: Announcement of candidate cities by the UEFA Executive Committee
  • 25 April 2014: Submission of bid dossiers
  • 19 September 2014: Appointment of the host cities by the UEFA Executive Committee

    Venue selection

On 25 January 2013, the UEFA Executive Committee approved the principles of venue selection:
  • Twelve cities will host four matches. A 13th city will host the semi-finals and final. Each city will use one venue only. Each association may bid for either or both of the above packages. However, a maximum of one city per country will be chosen.
  • The minimum stadium capacities should be 70,000 for semi-finals/final, 60,000 for quarter-finals, and 50,000 for round of 16 and group matches. Up to two exceptions would be allowed for stadiums of a minimum capacity of 30,000, limited to group matches and a round of 16 match. Any projected stadiums must start construction by 2016.
  • For the group stage, a maximum of two host teams will be drawn into each group, with each qualified host team guaranteed to play two home matches in the group stage. However, there is no guarantee that a host team will play any knockout matches at home. The composition of teams in the group stage will still be subject to seeding and draw, but the allocation of host teams to each group will take into account of travel distances.
  • Each team which qualifies for the finals can set up their base camp anywhere, without any obligation of staying in any of the host countries.
  • Each host city must have two airports, or two separate airport terminals at a single airport. This is to segregate rival fans.
In May 2013, UEFA President Michel Platini announced that his personal priority was to have the competition hosted at venues that have never hosted European Championship matches before.

Expressions of interest

The deadline for expressions of interest was 12 September 2013. On 20 September, UEFA confirmed expressions of interest from 32 football associations to act as host cities. Of the associations which had applied to host matches at Euro 2020, 19 had not previously hosted the final stages of tournament, '. Whilst neither Croatia or Serbia have hosted an international football tournament as independent countries, the Serbian and Croatian capitals both hosted finals matches for Euro 1976 as part of then Yugoslavia.
Expressed interest in bidding for Finals Package and Standard Package
Expressed interest in bidding for Finals Package
Expressed interest in bidding for Standard Package'''
The Finnish Football Association withdrew its bid on 4 March 2014 as redevelopments to its chosen venue, the Helsinki Olympic Stadium, will leave it below the standards required to host matches at the tournament. The Czech Football Association also withdrew its candidacy in March 2014 citing that the government was not ready to provide the guarantees for building a new stadium.
The Italian Football Federation withdrew Milan's San Siro Stadium after selecting Rome's Stadio Olimpico as the country's sole venue to host Euro 2020 matches.
Several federations withdrew their bids in late April 2014, before the final dossiers were submitted on 25 April. Four nations who had hosted recent tournaments – Euro 2008 hosts Switzerland, Euro 2012 co-hosts Poland and Ukraine, and Euro 2016 hosts France – withdrew after deciding that their chances of success were minimal. Despite being favourites to host the final, Turkey withdrew its bid to host the final at the Atatürk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul in favour of bidding to host UEFA Euro 2024.
In addition, other withdrawn bids included: both Portuguese bids, at the Estádio da Luz and Estádio do Dragão, due to lack of support from local councils; the bid from the Czech Football Association in Prague due to lack of financial guarantees from city authorities; the Croatian Football Federation's bid in Zagreb, due to financial problems; Armenia; Greece; Kazakhstan; and Serbia.

Bidding venues

The final list of bids was published by UEFA on 26 April 2014 with a decision on the hosts to be made by the UEFA Executive Committee on 19 September 2014. There were two bids for the Finals Package and 19 bids for the Standard Package.
CountryCityVenueCapacityPackage
BakuBaku National Stadium68,700Standard Package
MinskTraktar Stadium16,500 Rejected Standard Package
BrusselsEurostadium 50,000 Standard Package
SofiaVasil Levski National Stadium43,000 Rejected Standard Package
CopenhagenTelia Parken38,065Standard Package
LondonWembley Stadium90,000Finals Package
MunichAllianz Arena67,812 Standard Package
BudapestNew Puskás Ferenc Stadium56,000 Standard Package
DublinAviva Stadium51,700Standard Package
JerusalemTeddy Stadium34,000 Rejected Standard Package
RomeStadio Olimpico72,698Standard Package
SkopjePhilip II Arena33,460Rejected Standard Package
AmsterdamAmsterdam Arena53,052 Standard Package
BucharestArena Națională55,600Standard Package
Saint PetersburgNew Zenit Stadium69,500 Standard Package
GlasgowHampden Park52,063Standard Package
BilbaoSan Mamés Stadium53,332Standard Package
Solna, StockholmFriends Arena50,000Eliminated Standard Package
CardiffMillennium Stadium74,500Eliminated Standard Package

On 10 September 2014, UEFA published the evaluation reports of the 19 bids. Before the voting on 19 September 2014, UEFA judged that the candidatures of Belarus, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Israel did not fulfill the bid requirements, so they did not participate at all in the selection phases.

Voting

Procedure

The voting procedure of the venues was approved by the UEFA Executive Committee on 13 May 2014:
  • In the first voting phase, the winner of the Finals Package will be selected.
  • In the second voting phase, the winners of the four Standard Packages which will host the quarter-finals will be selected.
  • In the third and fourth voting phases, the winners of the eight Standard Packages which will host the round of 16 matches will be selected. This selection will be based on "regional zones" which will be finalized by the end of August 2014 by UEFA Executive Committee members whose associations are not bidding.
  • *In the third phase, for each zone that has not been selected in the first two phases, a winner of the Standard Package will be selected.
  • *In the fourth phase, the winners of the remaining Standard Packages will be selected.
The voting will be done by secret ballot and Executive Committee members which are associated with the bidding associations will not be allowed to vote.
The announcement ceremony of the selected venues took place at the Espace Hippomène in Geneva on 19 September 2014, 13:00 CEST, right after the voting in the morning.

Summary

The 13 venues were selected and announced on 19 September 2014:
  • Final and Semi-finals: London
  • Quarter-finals and Group stage: Munich, Baku, Saint Petersburg, Rome
  • Round of 16 and Group Stage: Copenhagen, Bucharest, Amsterdam, Dublin, Bilbao, Budapest, Brussels, Glasgow
Since Minsk, Sofia, Skopje and Jerusalem did not fulfill UEFA's requirements, Cardiff and Stockholm were the only cities not selected among the eligible bids.

First phase

In the first phase, the venue which will host the semi-finals and final was selected. Munich withdrew prior to the vote, and London was selected by acclamation.
CityVotes
London
Munich

Second phase

In the second phase, the four venues which will host one quarter-final and three group stage matches were selected. The seven candidate venues with a capacity of at least 60,000 were eligible. Each voting member ranked the venues in their order of preference: four points for their first choice, three points for their second choice, two points for their third choice, and one point for their fourth choice. The four venues with the highest points total were selected.
CityPoints
Munich38
Baku37
Saint Petersburg29
Rome20
Brussels11
Cardiff3
Budapest2

Third phase

In the third phase, a venue from each of the geographical zones which had not yet been chosen was selected to host a round of 16 match and three group stage matches. The six geographical zones were:
  • Zone 1 : England, Republic of Ireland, Scotland, Wales
  • Zone 2 : Denmark, Sweden
  • Zone 3 : Azerbaijan, Belarus, Russia
  • Zone 4 : Bulgaria, Macedonia, Hungary, Romania
  • Zone 5 : Belgium, Germany, Netherlands
  • Zone 6 : Italy, Israel, Spain
Prior to the vote, the venues of Belarus, Bulgaria, Macedonia, and Israel were determined to have failed bid requirements, and thus were not involved in the final two phases.
Of the six zones, Zones 1, 3, 5 and 6 already had venues chosen in the first two phases. Therefore, only Zones 2 and 4 were involved in this phase.
CityVotes
Copenhagen13
Stockholm3

CityVotes
Bucharest12
Budapest3

Fourth phase

In the fourth phase, the six remaining venues which will host one round of 16 and three group stage matches were selected among the remaining candidate venues. Each voting member ranked the venues in their order of preference: six points for their first choice, five points for their second choice, four points for their third choice, three points for their fourth choice, two points for their fifth choice, and one point for their sixth choice. The six venues with the highest points total were selected.
CityPoints
Amsterdam58
Dublin55
Bilbao50
Budapest48
Brussels43
Glasgow22
Cardiff21
Stockholm18

Selected venues

Below were the initial 13 venues selected by UEFA. However, the UEFA Executive Committee removed Brussels as a host city on 7 December 2017 due to delays with the building of the Eurostadium. The four matches initially scheduled to be held in Brussels will now be allocated to London. Therefore, Wembley Stadium will now host a total of seven matches, as London was already chosen to host the semi-finals and final of the tournament.
CountryCityVenueCapacityGamesPrevious hosts
BakuBaku National Stadium68,700 QF and GS—
BrusselsEurostadium50,000 R16 and GS
1972 & 2000
CopenhagenTelia Parken38,065R16 and GS—
LondonWembley Stadium90,000F and SF
1996
MunichAllianz Arena67,812 QF and GS1988
BudapestNew Puskás Ferenc Stadium56,000 R16 and GS—
DublinAviva Stadium51,700R16 and GS—
RomeStadio Olimpico72,698QF and GS1968 & 1980
AmsterdamJohan Cruyff Arena54,990R16 and GS2000
BucharestArena Națională55,600R16 and GS—
Saint PetersburgNew Zenit Stadium69,500QF and GS—
GlasgowHampden Park52,063R16 and GS—
BilbaoSan Mamés Stadium53,332R16 and GS1964