The UK and Ireland are the only bidders left to host the 2028 European Championship, after Turkey withdrew their bid today.
Turkey and Italy will instead bid for the 2032 competition, leaving the the UK & Ireland to bid unopposed for the 2028 tournament. UEFA will announce their official decision on 10th October.
A UEFA spokesperson confirmed: “Further to the announcement on July 28 which revealed the desire of the Italian and Turkish FAs to submit a joint bid to stage Euro 2032, the UEFA administration has today written to both associations to confirm that their joint bid has been duly received and will go forward for assessment and consideration by the UEFA Executive Committee.”
“As indicated by the FA of Turkiye with its submission of the request for a joint bid, their bid to stage Euro 2028 is consequently withdrawn.”
“The award of both tournaments still requires the approval of the Executive Committee at its meeting in Nyon on 10 October. The presentations at that meeting will be an important part of the process which will take due consideration of the content of the bid submissions before reaching a decision.”
Joint 5-nation bid
The football associations of England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland put in a joint bid to host the UEFA Euro 2028 competition in March of 2022. England have previously hosted several games of Euro 2020 (including the final) and the entire Euro 1996 tournament.
Games will be held in stadiums in each of the home nations, including Wembley Stadium in London, Cardiff’s Principality Stadium, Hampden Park in Glasgow, the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, and the still under-construction Casement Park in Belfast. A number of English Premier League stadiums will also be used, including Everton’s Bramley-Moore Dock stadium which is also currently under construction.
No automatic qualification
In most international tournaments it is standard practice for the host nation to receive automatic qualification to the knock-out stages. However UEFA rules state that no more than two teams can qualify automatically, and since their is no way to decide which of the five hosts should get special treatment, each team will go through the qualifying rounds instead.
This means there is a chance that one or more of the host countries will not compete in the finals.
