Russia May Be Sole Host Of Delayed Euro 2020 Tournament

The Euro 2020 tournament, originally planned to be staged in 12 countries across Europe, may now only be hosted in Russia as the country already has the infrastructure needed.

According to Championat citing a report from Le Parisien, the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) is looking at the possibility of Russia hosting the tournament. Citing unnamed sources, Le Parisien reported that Russia is under consideration as the sole host because of its 2018 FIFA World Cup infrastructure and relatively low Covid-19 infection rates in spring, when the UEFA pushed back the tournament a year.

Currently, Russia has fourth-highest number of confirmed Covid-19 infections worldwide, while the number of cases continues to rise. The novel coronavirus, which was first identified in China, has infected about 1.7 million people and killed 29,217 in Russia.

The 2020 UEFA European Championship, better known as Euro 2020 – the ultimate football (soccer) championship for 24 UEFA national football teams – is the 16th edition of Europe’s quadrennial men’s football tournament.

The unprecedented decision to postpone Euro 2020, one of the world's biggest football tournaments, was made in March by the UEFA due to the coronavirus pandemic. As a result, the tournament, originally scheduled to take place this summer in 12 host countries, including Azerbaijan and Russia, will now run from June 11 to July 11, 2021.

Russia’s second-largest city St. Petersburg was selected to host the upcoming games along with 11 other destinations across the continent. St. Petersburg secured the hosting rights for the three group stage matches and one of the quarterfinals of the 2020 UEFA Euro Cup following the decision made by the UEFA Executive Committee.

Along with St. Petersburg, 2020 Euro Cup matches were supposed to be held at stadiums in 11 other cities across Europe, namely in London (England), Munich (Germany), Rome (Italy), Baku (Azerbaijan), Bucharest (Romania), Amsterdam (the Netherlands), Dublin (Ireland), Bilbao (Spain), Budapest (Hungary), Glasgow (Scotland) and Copenhagen (Denmark).