 Post subject: Where will it be?
The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, or Euro 2016 for short, will be the 15th quadrennial top-level European football event. It will be held in the summer of the year 2016. The host nation(s) are yet to be selected. Should the selection process and timeline used for Euro 2012 be applied again, the host(s) would be chosen in the spring of 2011.
Euro 2016 is currently planned to feature 16 teams, though an extension to 24 is likely. UEFA, Europe's football confederation, will decide on the issue in the spring of 2007.
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A minimum of eight stadia is necessary to host a Euro in the present 16-team format. Should the tournament be expanded to 24, the experience of past 24-team World Cups (1982 to 1994) shows that 9 to 12 stadia are necessary to host such a competition, with 12 being the ideal number. Such an extensive requirement for stadium construction or renovation tends to favor bids by single large countries or joint bids by two medium-size countries.
Possible Bids:
Scotland & Wales
In December 2006, the Football Association of Wales announced it was tentatively considering the possibility of jointly hosting the tournament with the Scottish Football Association.
The Welsh part of the bid would include the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, as well as Cardiff City's new 30,000-capacity stadium at Leckwith. The recently opened Liberty Stadium in Swansea and the modern Racecourse Ground in Wrexham could also be upgraded for use.
Scottish stadia likely to be used would include national football stadium Hampden Park as well as club grounds Celtic Park and Ibrox (all in Glasgow), and also Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh. However, a bid featuring three stadia in the same host city, if accepted at all by UEFA (such an arrangement is presently unacceptable in a World Cup bid), would be a first in the history of major football competitions and would likely put severe strain on Glasgow's transportation and lodging infrastructure. An upgraded Pittodrie Stadium in Aberdeen, an also upgraded Rugby Park in Kilmarnock, a second stadium in Edinburgh such as the soon to be upgraded Tynecastle Stadium or Easter Road and a new stadium in Dundee are possible alternate venues that would not require the usage of a third Glasgow stadium.
If, as is expected, the tournament expands to 24 teams, then at least 12 stadiums would be preferential to any bid. Therefore, with 6 stadiums already up to the required standard, a further 6/7 venues would be required through redevelopment or construction.
France
Following UEFA's decision to award the 2012 tournament to Eastern Europe, the French Football Federation believes it has a good chance of succeeding in a bid to host the 2016 finals. FFF president Jean-Pierre Escalettes has said that France will bid if Italy do not win the hosting rights to 2012. France has plenty of top stadia and the infrastructure to host a major tournament. They last hosted the 1998 FIFA World Cup. The final would likely be played at Paris' Stade de France with Ligue 1 venues used for the rest of the tournament.
France will be a likely choice for UEFA if the tournament is expanded to 24 teams as expected due to its size, wealth, numerous acceptable stadia, football culture and infrastructure.
Sweden & Norway
According to an article [1] in the Swedish newspaper Göteborgs-Posten, Sweden and Norway are considering co-hosting the championship, with Göteborgs's Ullevi Stadium as the venue for the final. Göteborg is the natural choice for the final as the city is close to Norway. However, the 43,000-capacity Ullevi currently holds a UEFA 4-star rating only and would need expanding to over 50,000 (and improved amenities) to attain the 5-star rating necessary to host the final. The new 50,000-seat football-only national stadium in Solna, on the other hand, will be designed to 5-star standards from the start and will be a central part of the bid.
Other stadia being considered in Sweden are a new stadium in Malmö and Olympia Stadium in Helsingborg. Ullevål in Oslo, Lerkendal Stadium in Trondheim, Brann Stadion in Bergen, and Viking Stadion in Stavanger are the planned venues in Norway. One to four further stadia upgrades/constructions would be needed if the tournament were to be expanded to 24 teams.
Bulgaria & Romania
According to Internet feeds and an article in some Bulgarian and Romanian newspapers, a Romanian senator has proposed that the two countries bid jointly to host Euro 2016. This preliminary information features no supporting details and needs confirming as of February 2007. Two stadia in Sofia, Bulgaria, and one stadium each in Bucharest and Craiova in Romania are near-certain parts of any bid. However, as Poland and the Ukraine will host the Euro 2012, a successful eastern European bid for two consecutive tournaments seems unlikely.
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