The United Kingdom and Ireland will host the 2028 European Championship, while Italy and Turkey will stage the 2032 edition of the tournament, UEFA announced on Tuesday.
By accepting a joint Italy-Turkey bid for Euro 2032 last week, and with Turkey withdrawing from the race for Euro 2028, the hosts for both tournaments were already all but assured.
Turkey’s withdrawal from the 2028 race left England, Northern Ireland, Ireland, Scotland and Wales as the sole joint bidders for that tournament.
Both sets of bids, however, still needed final approval from UEFA’s executive committee that convened on Tuesday.
“Nothing is ever a formality even right until the last minute,” said Debbie Hewitt, chair of the English Football Association (FA). “We took nothing for granted.”
Hewitt said efforts to organise the tournament had united the five soccer associations.
“There’s so many things that you might think might divide, but actually it has really unified,” she said. “I think that will be something that we all feel very proud of.”
Euro 2028 will be the largest major sporting event the UK and Ireland have jointly staged. It will be held across 10 stadia, including Wembley Stadium in London, the National Stadium of Wales in Cardiff, Hampden Park in Glasgow and Dublin’s Aviva Stadium.
Hewitt said it was still unclear how the matches would be divided among the five hosts. Wembley, with a capacity of 90,000, could be expected to host the final and possibly the semi-finals. The venue hosted the final and semi-finals of Euro 2020.
Because of the five different hosts, UEFA will reserve two “safety net” berths for host teams that do not qualify on merit.
If more than two host nations fail to qualify, only the two with the best record will get a place. This would mean that some of the host nations will not feature in the tournament.
Former Welsh international Gareth Bale, who retired in January, said the tournament would boost soccer in Wales.
“I think it’s important especially for Wales to keep on the map, to keep pushing forward, to keep trying and better ourselves,” he said.
The English FA said some three million tickets would be available for the tournament, more than at any previous European Championship. Matches will be held in stadia with an average capacity of 58,000, it added.
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