By Andrew Warshaw
December 16 – When Aleksander Čeferin was campaigning to replace Michel Platini as UEFA president, he dismissed as “insulting” persistent reports that in exchange for their votes he had made a series of promises to the Nordic federations, not least that he would support a joint Nordic bid for the 2024 Euro finals.
His rejection of the reported deal now appears to have been proved right.
Last week, in a major blow to Nordic hopes, UEFA’s executive committee ruled out any prospect of a three-way bid.
While Euro 2020 will be staged across 13 European venues, brainchild of Platini and perhaps his most innovative (though critics might argue foolhardy) legacy, the Euro finals will revert back to their traditional format thereafter.
But although joint bids will continued to be allowed, say UEFA, crucially “direct qualification will be guaranteed …to a maximum of two hosts,” effectively ruling out a three-nation bid – or even more.
Furthermore, UEFA say that minimum requirements to stage the tournament “will be based on 9 or 10 stadia, with 2-3 with at least 50,000 net capacity (preferable one with minimum 60,000); 3 stadiums with at least 40,000 net capacity and 4 stadiums with at least 30,000 net capacity.”
While that will disappoint the likes of Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland, it will be music to the ears of the Germans who seem likely to step up their interest despite the ongoing scandal over staging the 2006 World Cup.
The bidding timeline for Euro 2024 will be as follows:
March 3, 2017: deadline for national associations to confirm their interest;
March 10, 2017: announcement of bidders by UEFA;
April 27, 2018: bid dossier submission deadline
September 2018: appointment of host(s).
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