On Tuesday, UEFA designated the organizing countries for the next two European Championships, which will follow the one organized in Germany in June 2024.
On Tuesday October 10, UEFA awarded Euro 2028 to the United Kingdom and Ireland and Euro 2032 to an alliance concluded this summer between Italy and Turkey, without much suspense since each candidacy was the only one in the running.
From Wembley in London to the City Stadium in Manchester via St James Park in Newcastle, Hampden Park in Glasgow, the Dublin Arena, the National Stadium in Cardiff or Casement Park in Belfast, the ten stadiums of 2028 are known and for many already mythical, for football as for rugby or Gaelic sports.
The last minute union between Italy and Turkey
The contours of the 2032 organization remain more mysterious, Italy and Turkey having campaigned separately for a long time before joining forces at the end of July, without revealing their future host cities, while nearly 1,400 kilometers as the crow flies separate their two capitals. UEFA also specifies that of the 20 potential stadiums, the two co-organizers will have to choose ten, five per country, before October 2026.
The two teams, made official during a brief ceremony by the president of the European body Aleksander Ceferin, will succeed Germany, host of Euro 2024 (June 14-July 14), and confirm the trend towards joint organizations of major sporting competitions, the only way for many countries to host them.
UEFA was a pioneer of joint organizations by awarding Euro 2000 to Belgium and the Netherlands, Euro 2008 to Austria and Switzerland, the 2012 edition to Poland and Ukraine and that of 2020, intended to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the event, in 11 host cities across Europe. Fifa imitated it by going even much further with the attribution of the 2030 World Cup to six countries spread over three continents: le Morocco, Spain and Portugal, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. This choice must be definitively adopted at the end of 2024. The teams from these six nations will thus automatically qualify for the World Cup.
The host countries in qualifying?
On the other hand, the five nations concerned by the organization of Euro 2028 (England, Wales, Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland) could all take part in the qualifications, indicated the boss of the English Football Federation, Mark Bullingham.
The organization of the tournament in five different countries does not allow everyone to be automatically allocated a place, as for Germany in 2024, for example. UEFA would have proposed to draft two teams out of five, however, in the event of failure during the qualifying process. “From our point of view, it’s good to take part in the qualifiers and we want all (the five host countries) to take part. We believe that with the new format of European football, this is the right thing to do“detailed Mark Bullingham to Sky Sports.