UEFA Euro 2016

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The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, or Euro 2016 for short, will be the 15th quadrennial top-level European football event. It will be held in the summer of 2016. The host(s) will be chosen in May 2010.^[1]

The 2016 tournament will be expanded from 16 to 24 teams after the plan was unanimously agreed by senior officials of all 53 UEFA member nations.^[2] Four bids came before the deadline at 9 March 2009, these were France, Italy and Turkey as single bids and Norway and Sweden as a joint bid.^[3]

Contents 1 Hosting requirements 2 Expanded Format 3 Bids 3.1 France 3.2 Italy 3.3 Turkey 3.4 Norway–Sweden 4 Decided not to bid 4.1 Scotland–Wales 4.2 Russia 5 References

[edit] Hosting requirements

Joint bids of two member associations are permitted, and under exceptional circumstances, joint bids comprised of three member associations may also be considered. The bidding process has officially started on 11 December 2008.^[1]

UEFA examined the bid regulations on 11 December 2008.^[4] For the 2016 edition, nine stadiums will be required, with another three as optional back-up.^[1]

The temporary suggestion of minimum stadia-requirements was:

• 2 stadiums with 50,000 seats
• 3 stadiums with 40,000 seats
• 4 stadiums with 30,000 seats

The final bid requirements will be distributed by UEFA on or about 3 April 2009, in what UEFA calls the second phase.

[edit] Expanded Format

The format of the final tournament will consist of six groups of four teams, followed by a round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals and final. The top two from each group would qualify in addition to the four best third-ranked sides. This format would generate a total of 51 games, compared with 31 now, to be played over a period of 29 to 31 days depending on the match schedule. This historic decision gives middle-ranked countries a much greater chance to qualify for the finals. The traditional qualifying structure, with groups of six and five teams, will remain in place.

[edit] Bids

Four candidates representing five European national associations have signalled to UEFA their interest in staging UEFA Euro 2016:

UEFA Euro 2016 - Potential Bids
Location
France
Italy
Turkey
Norway /  Sweden

[edit] France

The President of the French Football Federation, Jean-Pierre Escalettes, declared France's intention to bid on the 18th April 2007. Frédéric Thiriez commented that they would be a favourable candidate, owing to the quality of the infrastructure already in place. On December 11, 2007, the French sports minister, Bernard Laporte, said the bid would have the full support of the government and it would be submitted at the end of 2008 or early 2009.^[5]

The FFF officially confirmed the French bid on 13th February 2009.^[6]

[edit] Italy

After months of speculation in the Italian media, the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) decided to launch a bid to host the 2016 Championships on 2 March 2009 with the FIGC president Giancarlo Abete saying his country "cannot pull out of hosting major international events" following a board meeting in Rome. ^[7]

An Italian bid to host the next tournament in 2012 was surprisingly beaten by a joint bid from Poland and Ukraine in April 2007, with domestic fan violence ^[8] and corruption ^[9] at the time reported to be partly to blame.

The Italian bid intends to use the tournament as a catalyst for major investment in building and upgrading stadiums around the peninsula. Stadium facilities have fallen behind other major European footballing countries like England, Germany and Spain since Italy last hosted a major football tournament - the FIFA World Cup in 1990.

Italy has already hosted the UEFA European Football Championship finals twice before, in 1968 and in 1980, and staged their first FIFA World Cup tournament in 1934.

UEFA announced they would require a minimum of nine stadiums for the expanded 24-team tournament in 2016. The Italian bid is expected to propose most of the same host cities as they included in the bid for the 2012 edition.

List of stadia proposed for 2012 bid (includes back-ups):

• Bari – Stadio San Nicola, current capacity 58,248.
• Bologna – Stadio Renato Dall'Ara, current capacity 38,279. (New stadium may be proposed.)
• Cagliari – Stadio Sant'Elia, current capacity 23,486. (New stadium may be proposed.)
• Florence – Stadio Artemio Franchi, current capacity 47,282. (New stadium may be proposed.)
• Genoa – Stadio Luigi Ferraris (Marassi), current capacity 36,536. (New stadium may be proposed.)
• Milan – Stadio Giuseppe Meazza (San Siro), current capacity 80,074.
• Naples – New stadium planned to replace Stadio San Paolo, current capacity 60,240.
• Palermo – New stadium planned to replace Stadio Renzo Barbera, current capacity 37,619.
• Rome – Stadio Olimpico, current capacity 72,700.
• Turin – New stadium of 40,200 capacity.
• Udine – Stadio Friuli, current capacity 41,652.
• Verona – Stadio Marc'Antonio Bentegodi, current capacity 39,211.

[edit] Turkey

The former head of Turkish Football Association, Hasan Doğan, had declared that he will try to bring Euro 2016 to Turkey before his term of office ends but he died of a heart attack in Bodrum while on vacation^[10][11], during his declaration that he would be giving up the position possibly in the next term.^[12] He also mentioned that there were "positive talks" between him and Michel Platini about this issue.^[13]

Turkish Minister of Sports Murat Başesgioğlu said "Turkey has a serious interest to host UEFA Euro 2016 at the 2009 UEFA Cup Final unveiling ceremony."^[14]

The Turkish Football Federation (TFF) announced on the 7th of February 2009 that the federation has given the UEFA their official candidature brief to host UEFA Euro 2016.^[15]

Completed stadia: Atatürk Olympic Stadium, capacity 82,000 (UEFA Elite Stadium) İzmir Atatürk Stadium, capacity 65,000 Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium, capacity 55,000 (UEFA Elite Stadium) Cebeci İnönü Stadı,capacity 35,000 BJK İnönü Stadium, capacity 35,000 Kadir Has Stadium, capacity 35,000 (4 Stars) Hüseyin Avni Aker Stadium, capacity 30,000 Şanlıurfa Stadium, capacity 30,000

Under construction: Aslantepe ArenA, capacity 52,647 New Antalya Stadium, capacity 35,000 New Konya Stadium, capacity 35,000 Planned stadia: New Adana Stadium, capacity 40,000 New Trabzon Stadium, capacity 41,000 New Ankara Stadium, capacity 35,000 New Kocaeli Stadium, capacity 35,000 New Bursa Stadium, capacity 40,000 New Beşiktaş Stadium, capacity 40,000

[edit] Norway–Sweden

Norway and Sweden have announced their intention to co-host the championship.^[16] The following Swedish stadia will have at least 30,000 seats in 2016:

• Stockholm Swedbank Arena (new national stadium), in Solna Municipality, Stockholm, 50 000 seats, under construction. The new stadium will replace Råsunda Stadium.
• Ullevi Stadium, Gothenburg, 43 000 seats today.
• Stockholm Arena, Stockholm, 30 000 seats, construction starts 2011.

Other arenas have to be built or enlarged permanently or temporarily to fulfill the size demands. Possibilites include Malmö, Helsingborg and Halmstad. Sweden last hosted the Championships at Euro 1992.

Four Norwegian host cities will be part of the bid. After an evaluation process which included the cities of Bergen, Bodø, Lillestrøm, Stavanger, Trondheim and Oslo, the Football Association of Norway announced on July 9 2009 that the following four hosts had been chosen:^[17]

• Oslo - new national stadium with a capacity of 50,000 will be built.
• Lillestrøm - new stadium with a capacity of 44,000 will be built.
• Trondheim - Lerkendal Stadion will be expanded to 30,000 seats.
• Stavanger - Viking Stadion will be expanded to 30,000 seats.

The bid was confirmed by Football Association of Norway and Swedish Football Association at a press conference in Oslo on 26 February 2009.^[18]

[edit] Decided not to bid

[edit] Scotland–Wales

Scotland, along with the Republic of Ireland, bid for Euro 2008 and there was much discussion over whether the nation should consider a solo bid for Euro 2016. The entrance into government of the Scottish National Party (SNP) boosted the hopes of such an outcome. Comments by Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond suggested that a Scotland - Wales bid may be considered, but a solo Scotland bid would be preferential if logistically possible.^[19] Both Salmond and Welsh First Minister Rhodri Morgan became supportive of a joint Scotland-Wales bid, particularly when the increase in size of the tournament was announced. ^[20] The two countries announced on 1 March 2009, however, that they had cancelled their plans owing to the economic downturn.^[21]

[edit] Russia

Russia could've hosted Euro 2016. President of Russian Football Union Vitaly Mutko said that Russia has a good chance to become host of this championship.^{[citation needed]} However, Russia did not bid before the deadline.

[edit] References

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