European Football Championship: Four applicants for EM 2028 and 2032

Wednesday is the deadline for the member associations to express their interest in hosting the European Championships in 2028 or 2032. It is already clear who wants which tournament and who the favorites are.

In September 2023, the host countries of the two European Championship tournaments in 2028 and 2032 will be announced, UEFA announced in December 2021. The deadline for the national associations to express their interest in one of the two tournaments is Wednesday (March 23, 2022) at 6 p.m.

EM 2028: British-Irish bid as favourites, Russia bids

There were several interested parties for the EM 2028, but it remains a clear favorite.

The joint application officially confirmed on Wednesday by England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland is considered the sure winner of the award for the 2028 tournament. The five associations had decided against an initially targeted application for the 2030 World Cup after the power struggle between FIFA and UEFA intensified in the dispute over the possible two-year rhythm of the World Cup.

Russia will submit an application for 2028 and 2032, according to Russian media reports. “We will apply to host the European Championships in 2028 and 2032,” said Russian FA board member Sergey Anokhin. An application is possible because the Russian teams are suspended after the invasion of Ukraine, but not the association.

Turkey applied in 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020 and also at the tournament awarded to Germany in 2024 in vain, but now officially announced the next attempt. Against the British-Irish bid, the chances are small this time too.

Italy decided to apply in 2032 due to time constraints and withdrew for 2028.

Should England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland be allocated the tournament together, they would all likely have to qualify. Because: “The automatic qualification of the host team(s) is only guaranteed for a single host or a maximum of two joint host associations,” writes UEFA in its call to the associations to apply. “With more than two joint host associations, automatic qualification of all host teams cannot be guaranteed.”

EM 2032: Italy most promising candidate

There is also a clear favorite for the EM 2032.

Italy Withdrew its interest in EURO 2028 in favor of the 2032 tournament. In this way, the FIGC avoided the favored bid from the United Kingdom and Ireland, while at the same time buying time to modernize the infrastructure. “There is now a larger time window for this,” announced the FIGC. “Italy needs to invest,” said UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin. “No new stadiums have been built for many years and the few that have been rebuilt are small.”

Russia is according to his announcement at least a competitor.

In addition, there have been no further applications so far – but unexpected expressions of interest are still possible and conceivable – for both tournaments. A PDF form for an application can still be accessed on the UEFA website.

Decision on hosting in Fall 2023 or earlier

The procedure has been formulated by UEFA as follows:

This process could be shortened if there were only one application for each tournament. The next meeting of the UEFA Executive Committee is scheduled for April 7th or 8th.

Required: Ten big stadiums and maybe a tournament for 32 teams

According to UEFA, ten stadiums are required per tournament, one of which should have at least 60,000 seats and one or two at least 50,000 seats. Four more stadiums must have 40,000 seats, three more 30,000.

The 2028 and 2032 tournaments are based on 24 teams with 51 games, writes UEFA in the call for applications. An important sentence: “Information on the dates and the number of teams and games are preliminary and can therefore change.” And it is by no means improbable that the EM 2024 in Germany will have been the last with 24 teams for the time being. UEFA is considering expanding the tournament to 32 teams.

After the EM 2021, there were several media reports that UEFA was considering expanding the EM from 24 to 32 teams. This would have the advantage of no longer having to laboriously determine the best third parties for a compilation of the round of 16 games. However, if 32 out of 55 teams qualified, qualification would be almost devoid of all excitement. Only in 2016 was the tournament enlarged from 16 to 24 teams. The tournament in Germany has so far been planned with 24 teams.

UEFA expects tax exemption

Like most sports organizations, UEFA is demanding tax exemption for these tournaments. In the Requirements for hosting the EM 2024 it said that revenue generated by UEFA “in connection with the sale of media, marketing, licensing and other commercial rights is not subject to any tax or other deductions in the host country”.

Source: sportschau.de