The chances are already quite good that the European Football Championship, which is to be held in Germany next year, can be labeled “historic”. And if you want, you can get nostalgic. Because the European Championships in Germany will be the last to take place in a single country, at least for years.
On Tuesday, the European football union Uefa officially announced at its headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, what had been certain for some time: the 2028 European Championship will take place in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, and Italy will share the hosting of the following European Championship in 2032 and Turkey – although they do not have a common border, which was previously something like a condition of UEFA for an international co-hosting of the national tournament.
This continues the trend of transnational and – upon closer inspection – intercontinental football tournaments. There will also be games on Asian soil in Turkey in 2032, although this is nothing new because Baku (Azerbaijan) was also involved in the eleven-nation European Championship in 2021. The cross-border solutions for increasingly gigantic tournaments reached a spectacular climax just last week: The world association Fifa decided to distribute the games of the 2030 World Cup across six countries and three continents: Spain and Portugal (Europe) plus Morocco (Africa) – as well as Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay (Latin America).
Italy and Turkey were afraid that their solo bids would fail
There were two main reasons why the “ITU” candidacy for the 2032 European Championship came about, as it was said on the name tags of the Italians and Turks in the conference hall of the UEFA “House of Football”. From different perspectives, it was clear to both the Turks and the Italians that they would not win with solo applications. The Turks would most likely not have received enough votes in a contested vote, and the Italians were more than just skeptical due to the deplorable condition of their stadiums. Slovakian UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin’s words from last year still apply: the infrastructure situation in Italy is “pretty terrible” and “not worthy of a football nation.”
The fact that both countries came together ultimately had to do with the fear of ruining a European Championship candidacy again – both share a record of failed bids with four or five unsuccessful attempts. Now the two countries will compete with five stadiums each. But their requirements could hardly be more different.
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Smiles for the football festival: In England, striker Harry Kane (left) and national coach Gareth Southgate are looking forward to the 2028 European Championship with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (center).
(Foto: WPA Pool/Getty Images)
While the Turks can point to having brought their football stages into shape under Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Italians have to make a lot of upgrades (and certainly tap into billions of dollars in public money to do so). Currently only two stadiums in Italy – Rome and Milan – are considered suitable for the European Championship; Italy’s association head Gabriele Gravina said on Tuesday that fully financed projects were available in Cagliari, Florence and Bologna.
It is still unclear where the final will take place in 2032 – in Rome or Istanbul. It is quite possible that this question will give rise to a similar conflict to the one that currently exists between the co-hosts Spain and Morocco over the 2030 World Cup. The Spaniards are convinced that the World Cup final will (and must) be played at Real Madrid’s Estadio Santiago Bernabéu. The Moroccans, for their part, are enticing visitors with a new 95,000-person stadium (and one night) in Casablanca.
In England, Old Trafford and the stadium at Anfield Road are empty
The fact that Italy and Turkey came together had a direct impact on the decision about the 2028 European Championship. The Turks had originally raised their finger for both tournaments – 2028 and 2032. The entente with the Italians resulted in their withdrawal in 2028, clearing the way for the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. There are now ten stadiums available there. Cardiff (Wales), Dublin (Ireland), Glasgow (Scotland) and Belfast (Northern Ireland) were considered – as well as six stadiums in England.
What is already certain, however, is that two of England’s most traditional football temples will be left out of the European Championship: Old Trafford, the home of Manchester United, and Liverpool FC’s stadium on Anfield Road – both went away empty-handed. The game will be played in the future stadium of Everton FC in Liverpool, which will cost a mere 870 million euros, in Villa Park in Birmingham, at the Saudi club Newcastle United and in two London arenas: in the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and in Wembley, which is still the case is considered time-honored and therefore the favorite for the final.
As the Bloomberg news agency reported, this is “not yet a done deal.” Wembley had already been the venue for the European Championship final in 2021, which was remembered, among other things, because the security forces were completely overwhelmed. The analysis by the English association showed that it was a miracle that there were no deaths to complain about. On the day of the 2021 final (England lost to Italy on penalties), the stadium was besieged by tens of thousands of fans who did not have enough money for tickets, but did have plenty of alcohol and other drugs.
Debbie Hewitt, chair of the British-Irish bid for 2028, vowed improvement on Tuesday. They want to “definitely bury” their reputation as organizers of chaos and show that they have “learned the lesson” in England. This should also apply to Istanbul, regardless of whether a final or “just” the opening game is placed there. Because the organizational chaos at the 2023 Champions League final between Manchester City and Inter Milan (1-0) was also at least spectacular.
