Ireland joins 32 countries in race for 13 city hosting slots. Fingers crossed.
It might seem a long way away now but the bidding process for Euro 2020 has begun in earnest. Uefa have decided that that year’s Euros won’t be based in one or two countries, but instead will be played across 13 host cities, each of which will get three group games and a knockout match for the then 24-team tournament.
The FAI have made a bid for Dublin to be one of those 13 cities, but with the majority of nations in Uefa putting in a bid, many for more than one city, the competition is very stiff indeed.
England has only bid with London, and Germany has only bid with Munich, but the likes of Italy and Portugal have bid with two cities, while Spain have gone with four (Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao, Valencia).
The final bids are to be submitted in April next year and the winners will be announced almost exactly a year from now, on September 25 2014.
The full list of bidders, via the Irish Times, is below.
Armenia (Yerevan), Azerbaijan (Baku), Belarus (Minsk), Belgium (Brussels), Bulgaria (Sofia), Croatia (Zagreb), Czech Republic (Prague), Denmark (Copenhagen), England (London), Finland (Helsinki), France (Lyon), Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (Skopje), Germany (Munich), Greece (Athens), Hungary (Budapest), Israel (Jerusalem), Italy (Rome, Milan), Kazakhstan (Astana), Netherlands (Amsterdam), Poland (Warsaw, Chorzow), Portugal (Lisbon, Porto), Republic of Ireland (Dublin), Romania (Bucharest), Russia (St Petersburg), Scotland (Glasgow), Serbia (Belgrade), Spain (Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao, Valencia), Sweden (Solna), Switzerland (Basel), Turkey (Istanbul), Ukraine (Kyiv, Donetsk) and Wales (Cardiff).
