UEFA will award the 2028 European Championship and the 2032 European Championship on October 10th. An election will decide – but the winners have probably been decided long ago.
Italy and Turkey had actually applied as competitors for the 2032 European Championship. At the end of July they applied to UEFA to allow them to apply together for the tournament. Everything now speaks in one’s favor deal instead of an election: The 2032 European Championship will then go to Italy and Turkey, which would give the joint application from England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland clear path for the 2028 tournament.
On October 10, the UEFA Executive Committee will decide on the awarding of the 2028 and 2032 tournaments.
UEFA demanded: applicant countries must be “close lie together”
Before that, however, the UEFA administration must decide whether the joint application from Italy and Turkey meets the requirements and will be admitted to the vote in just over two weeks. Upon request, UEFA informed Sportschau that the decision had been made “at a given time” will be published.
In the announcement of the two tournaments at the end of 2021, UEFA announced that joint applications are generally permitted, “as long as the applicant countries are close to each other”. What “close to each other”, is now a matter for interpretation by UEFA. For example, the fact that there are almost 1,400 kilometers by air between Rome and Istanbul does not have to be an obstacle. Recent European Championship history has meant some long journeys: in 2012, for example, after the preliminary round, the Spanish team flew more than 1,600 kilometers from Gdansk in Poland to Donetsk in the Ukraine. And at the pan-European EM 2021, Denmark had to travel around 4,000 kilometers to the semi-finals in London after the quarter-finals in Baku.
Long way to go: Spain’s team in Donetsk 2012
If the application is accepted, there will be none Opposing candidates more
Giovanni Malago, President of the Italian National Olympic Committee, spoke of the “best solution” and pointed out that this would also allow the necessary investments to be shared with Turkey. The joint application now gives UEFA the opportunity to organize an election without losers. That’s exactly what the Turkish association president said Mehmet Büyükeksi at. “We had a 50 percent chance”he said in the newspaper “Hurriyet“. “Then an offer came from Italy: ‘Let’s do it together.’ We accepted this offer because there is no risk of our country or Italy losing.” Turkey had unsuccessfully applied for the 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020 and 2024 tournaments.
Another sentence from Büyükeksi becomes important: “If we can win in 2032, we will give up the candidacy in 2028.” If the joint application with Italy is approved by UEFA, there would be no losers in 2028 either.
The Turkish association president Mehmet Büyükeksi
Qualification: Turkey and Italy would definitely be there – what happens in 2028?
For both tournaments, UEFA has promised a maximum of two safe places for the host countries. Italy and Turkey can therefore assume that they will definitely be there in 2032. Things look different for the five potential hosts in 2028.
Last week, the English television channel “ITV” secured the rights to all games of the English national team outside of the major tournaments until 2028. In a statement it is expressly mentioned that this includes the qualifying games for the Euro 2028 – so it is assumed that England will play there must.
The teams from England and Scotland will probably have to qualify as hosts
The English newspaper “The Times” reports that the current plan is to have all five hosts play in the qualifiers. Whoever of the five hosts doesn’t make it there can then fall back on one of the two safe places. A final decision on this has not yet been made. The 2024 European Championship will take place in Germany, the tournament was awarded in 2017. Ticket sales begin on October 3, 2023.
of Russia Attempt to apply for 2028 and 2032
At the end of March 2022, shortly after the start of the Russian attack on Ukraine, Russia also applied to host the 2028 or 2032 European Championships. UEFA later rejected the applications and justified this with its application regulations.