UEFA General Secretary, Gianni Infantino has been talking about the somewhat controversial decision to host the Euro 2020 Tournament across multiple nations at Soccerex in Manchester.
The announcement of the 2020 Championships multiple host structure was made by UEFA President Michel Platini in December last year. The one off system was announced to celebrate the 60th birthday of the tournaments existence and later reasoned by Platini that it was the logical decision to make at a time of financial difficulty across Europe.
Infantino today insisted that the twinning together of host cities at Euro 2020 will provide a logistical set up that will facilitate the travel for all supporters. First round host cities will be located within two hour flights of each other for the group stages. Quarter finals and beyond will then be hosted by cities that boast 70,000 + seater stadiums. This will limit the number of potential latter stage hosts to the large Western football markets of Europe (England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain) where fourteen of the seventeen suitable stadia are located.
The publication of the bid requirements and launch of the bidding phase for Euro 2020 are due to kick off this month (April, 2013) and will culminate in September of next year. It will be very interesting and exciting to see how the bid process develops for this hugely anticipated quadrennial tournament.
