Euro 2020 - Host City

Wembley to host Euro 2020 finale

England will host the finale of Euro 2020

The Football Association (FA) in England was awarded the hosting rights after its only rival, the German Football Association (DFB), withdrew its bid for Munich’s Allianz Arena to stage the tournament finale just before the vote.

Earlier this month, DFB general secretary Helmut Sandrock revealed that a deal had been discussed with the FA whereby the German bid for the final games of Euro 2020 would be scrapped if England agreed not to bid for Euro 2024.

Germany wants to host Euro 2024 in its entirety while England is interested in hosting the whole of Euro 2028 after Euro 2020 is staged in multiple countries across the continent.

Munich did secure a package of three Euro 2020 group games and one quarter-final alongside Baku (Azerbaijan), Rome (Italy) and Saint Petersburg (Russia).

Brussels (Belgium), Copenhagen (Denmark), Budapest (Hungary), Amsterdam (the Netherlands), Dublin (Ireland), Bucharest (Romania), Glasgow (Scotland) and Bilbao (Spain) were also awarded packages comprising three group games and one round-of-16 encounter.

Of the 19 Uefa member associations to have tabled bids, Belarus (Minsk), Bulgaria (Sofia), FYR Macedonia (Skopje), Israel (Jerusalem), Sweden (Stockholm) and Wales (Cardiff) failed to make the tournament’s final 13 host cities.

“This bidding process was open to more than 50 Uefa countries so for Wembley to be ultimately recognised in this way is testament to a lot of hard work behind the scenes,” FA chairman Greg Dyke said.

“We are proud of the FA’s bid and particularly its strong commitment to our ‘football for everyone’ goal. Making Uefa Euro 2020 a tournament that is open and inclusive was a huge focus. 

“The bid was about working with Uefa to celebrate young people, develop our grassroots volunteers and demonstrate the determination for all England teams, men’s and women’s, to compete at the top level.

“This was recognised by the leaders of all three political parties, the Mayor of London, the Sports Minister and everyone who contributed in putting the bid together.

“Having seen the impact that a home Olympic Games had on young sportsmen and women in our country, I hope that Uefa Euro 2020 serves as a similar incentive for our most promising players to realise their full potential over the next six years.”

The next edition of the tournament in 2016 will herald a new era for the tournament, with France hosting 24 teams – up from the 16 that competed at Euro 2012, which was co-hosted by Poland and Ukraine.

England targets Euro 2028 as Wembley closes in on 2020 finale

Wembley Stadium

Uefa, football’s European governing body, will announce the host cities for the Euro 2020 tournament following a meeting on September 18 in Geneva, Switzerland.

The tournament will be staged in multiple cities across Europe, with widespread reports indicating that Wembley will be allocated the most prestigious package comprising the competition’s three biggest games.

England’s main rival for the top package had been Germany, but the latter is reportedly considering dropping its attempt to secure the top games at Euro 2020 in favour of launching a bid to host the Euro 2024 edition in its entirety.

Now Horne has suggested that England would be interested in following up hosting the finale of Euro 2020 by staging the full tournament in 2028 for the first time since 1996.

“We're really confident with our bid,” Horne said, according to the Daily Mail newspaper.

“We know what the Germans have been saying. We know that they're thinking about 2024, but nothing has been confirmed.

“I'm not going to dwell on their politics. I'm expecting that they're not going to push very hard for 2020. They've made it very clear they want 2024.
“I wouldn't rule out looking at Euro 2028 for a full tournament bid.”

Wolfgang Niersbach, the head of the DFB, the sport’s governing body in Germany, said: “We still have the two options – to host the final rounds or four matches in the group stage. Our decision is open.

“We have a wonderful relationship with the England FA, but I am totally convinced that we will have both Wembley and Munich on the land map for Euro 2020.”

England lost out to Germany in bidding to host the 2006 Fifa World Cup and then crashed out in the first round of voting for the hosting rights to the 2018 World Cup, which was ultimately secured by Russia.

Germany’s anticipated bid for Euro 2024 is likely to be challenged by Turkey, which withdrew its bid for Euro 2020 games in April and announced that it would focus on the following edition of the event in 10 years’ time.