Dilapidated infrastructure
“Shame”: Host country threatens to be withdrawn from the European Championship
April 2, 2026 – 6:55 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
Italy is considered a football country, and the 2032 European Championship is scheduled to take place here, among other things. But whether this will actually happen is currently unclear.
Will co-host Italy lose the Euro 2032? This seems conceivable given UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin’s recent statements. “The 2032 European Championship is planned and will take place: I hope that the infrastructure will be ready. Otherwise the tournament will not be held in Italy,” said Čeferin in an interview with “Gazzetta dello Sport”. The 58-year-old had already spoken of a “disgrace” a year ago when it came to the infrastructure in Italian football.
Italy should host the European Championships together with Turkey in six years. There should be five stadiums per country. The venues in Naples, Milan and Florence, among others, are to be rebuilt or converted. However, it is not certain whether they will be finished in time.
This is one of the reasons why Čeferin is so critical. The UEFA President is also not so happy with his cooperation with sport and politics in Italy. “Italy is one of the biggest football nations and will return to the top. The biggest problem in Italian football is the relationship between football politics and ‘normal’ politics,” he claimed in the “Gazzetta” interview and added: “If everyone coordinated, you would soon become European and world champions again. And if the always negative people continue like this, then things will go terribly badly in football.”
Maybe it won’t stay that way. Given the lack of success and the deteriorated image abroad, the two resignations are probably not enough. There is still enough time until the home European Championship, if it happens.
