Berlin (dpa) - The European Football Championship postponed to next year should start under the same conditions as the pan-European tournament originally planned for this summer with twelve hosts, including Munich.
"The plan is to have the same venues, the same cities, the same stadiums," UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin (52) told AP. "If something gets complicated, we can do it with eleven, nine or fewer stadiums. But the plan is that everything stays the same."
This means that Germany will also host a quarter-final and three group games with the Allianz Arena from record champions FC Bayern. The EM mode with host locations spread across the entire continent was chosen to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the EM this year. In addition to Munich, Rome, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Bilbao, St. Petersburg, Bucharest, Budapest, Baku, Glasgow, Dublin and London were selected as hosts. The British capital was awarded both semi-finals and the final, among other things. 24 teams will take part.
The UEFA Executive Committee had decided to move the previous day due to the coronavirus pandemic. "It's the biggest crisis in football history," said Ceferin. "We all know that this terrible virus makes football, life in Europe almost impossible. We knew that we had to stop all competitions." The postponement of the EM, which is now to take place from June 11 to July 11, 2021, will cost the umbrella organization "hundreds of millions of euros", said the Slovenian. He also announced that the 2021 Women's European Championship in England is likely to be postponed to 2022.
UEFA announcement
European football union