England and Germany will continue their great football rivalry in a contest to host the 2020 European Championship final and semi-finals. Uefa said yesterday Saturday on Saturday that 19 countries are bidding to host games in the tournament being played across Europe, and the final stages will be at either Wembley Stadium or Munich's Allianz Arena.
England and Germany are also bidding for one of the 12 hosting packages of three group-stage matches in the 24-team tournament, plus a single knockout match from the last-16 or quarter-finals rounds.
Glasgow, Cardiff and Dublin have also bid to host early matches, along with Bilbao, Rome, Munich, Stockholm, St Petersburg, Amsterdam, Brussels, Copenhagen, Jerusalem, Sofia, Bucharest, Budapest, Baku, Minsk and Skopje.
The Uefa president, Michel Platini, said: "We are extremely happy to have received so many bids to host Euro 2020," said the Uefa president, Michel Platini. "The 60th year anniversary edition of the tournament will be an historic one, with matches played in many European countries.
"By spreading Euro 2020 across our continent, we will allow more fans from more nations to share in the excitement of hosting such a magical event.
"Member associations will also benefit greatly from this format, since more of them will be exposed to an elite tournament and have the opportunity to increase the development of football in their respective countries."
Uefa's executive committee will choose the host cities on 19 September in Geneva. Platini proposed the innovative multinational hosting plan on the eve of the Euro 2012 final in Kiev. He has pledged to limit the burden of travel distances and costs for fans who want to follow the 51-match tournament across several time zones. Istanbul was favourite to stage the final before the Turkey federation withdrew on Friday to target hosting Euro 2024 alone.
England last hosted the Euros in 1996, when they lost to Germany, the eventual winners, in the semi-finals. West Germany hosted Euro 88 and also lost in the semi-finals to the eventual winners, Holland. Wembley and the Allianz Arena have hosted three of the past four Champions League finals. Chelsea won in Munich in 2012 and Bayern Munich – who have Allianz as their home stadium – won at Wembley last May, three years after Barcelona neat Manchester United there.
The Dutch, who co-hosted Euro 2000 with Belgium, have proposed Amsterdam and the Belgians are bidding with a planned new stadium in Brussels. No nation that has hosted the Euros since 2000 is formally bidding to host in 2020. However, Russia, the 2018 World Cup host, has bid with St Petersburg. A total of 13 Uefa member countries did not submit bids after initially expressing interest last September.
