Michel Platini’s plan of spreading the Euro 2020 tournament across the continent appears to be gathering momentum, with German newspaper Bild saying on Tuesday that the games could take place in 13 countries.
Bild said that Platini, president of the European governing body UEFA, aims to have the plan discussed by the UEFA executive committee on December 7 and ratified in January 2013.
“Michel Platini has laid out his plan to me in a meeting. But it requires confirmation by the executive committee,” the report quoted German football federation (DFB) president Wolfgang Niersbach as saying.
Niersbach told DPA on Tuesday that his federation, the DFB, does not object the plan and will be present at a meeting between Platini and national federations on November 27/28 in Brussels.
“We have discussed the issue within our leadership and are open towards the proposals. The idea of having Euro-games in Germany is attractive,” he said.
Bild said that the 12 host cities, one in every country, will depend on seedings and qualifying. A team will be seeded for the 24-team event if it qualifies and is among the 12 best teams from Europe in the world rankings.
The 12 seeds, two from each group, are to host group games and the round of 16. The quarterfinal matches are to be played on neutral ground, and the semifinals and final in a 13th city.
Bild said that based on the current FIFA rankings matches could take place in Berlin, Madrid, Lisbon, Rome, London, Amsterdam, Moscow, Zagreb, Athens, Basel, Paris and Brussels. It said that Istanbul was a contender for the final stages.
Platini had first floated the idea of moving the tournament away from one or two host countries to a pan-European event with 12 or more host cities at the end of Euro 2012 which was co-hosted by Poland and Ukraine.
The former French international said at the time that one benefit would be a reduction of the costs of staging the tournament for a host country.
“I feel passionately about it, and the executive committee thought it was a good idea. It will be easier from a financial aspect — one stadium per host city,” Platini said on June 30.
