Brussels loses four Euro 2020 matches
nyon — Wembley Stadium in London will host four Euro 2020 matches originally set to be staged in Brussels, Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin said on Thursday.
The European football governing body’s executive committee decided “unanimously” to strip Brussels of its four matches due to the inability of Belgian organisers to guarantee the new stadium to the north of the capital where they would have been held could be built in time.
Wembley will now host seven matches in total, having already been allocated the two semifinals and the final on July 12, 2020. Uefa also announced the opening game on June 12, 2018, would be held at Rome’s Stadio Olimpico.
“Due to the Eurostadium project’s failure to meet the conditions imposed by the Uefa Executive Committee during its meeting of 20 September 2017, the four matches (three group, one round of 16) initially scheduled to be held in Brussels will now be allocated to London’s Wembley Stadium following a countries will host the euro 2020 football championship vote by the committee,” said Ceferin.
Brussels was one of 13 venues picked to host this unique edition of the European Championship — to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Uefa — held across the continent rather than in a single host country.
A draw was also held to decide which cities would host games from the various groups.
Rome and Baku will host Group A, Saint Petersburg and Copenhagen Group B, Amsterdam and Bucharest Group C, London and Glasgow Group D, Bilbao and Dublin Group E, with Munich and Budapest the Group F venues. — AFP