UEFA Announces Hosts for Euro 2028 and 2032, Reverses Decision on Russian U-17 Teams
The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) has revealed the countries that will host the UEFA European Championships in 2028 and 2032. This decision was announced during the broadcast of the UEFA Executive Committee meeting.
The hosts for the 2028 tournament will be the United Kingdom and Ireland. Proposed match venues include stadiums in Belfast, Birmingham, Cardiff, Dublin, Glasgow, Liverpool, London (two stadiums), Manchester, and Newcastle. In 2032, the tournament will take place in Turkey and Italy, with specific host cities yet to be determined. Out of 20 potential venues, ten will be selected by October 2026, with five from each country.
Additionally, UEFA's Executive Committee has taken a significant step by reversing its earlier decision regarding the participation of Russian U-17 and younger teams in European competitions. According to the primary explanation, UEFA representatives couldn't devise a technical solution to enable Russian teams to participate in the tournaments.
However, it's worth noting that UEFA's intentions to reintroduce Russian youth teams to competitions had sparked outrage among European football associations. Twelve countries, including Ukraine, England, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Ireland, and Romania, expressed their reluctance to compete against Russian teams. It's quite likely that the decision to reverse this move was influenced by the potential boycott from this significant number of nations.
Furthermore, it was previously announced that the 2030 FIFA World Cup would be hosted on three continents across six countries. FIFA unanimously selected a joint bid from Morocco, Portugal, and Spain as the sole candidate to host the tournament. Ukraine, which had expressed interest in joining this bid, will not be among the tournament's hosts.
FIFA also decided to commemorate the centenary of the World Cup, which first took place in 1930 in Uruguay. Notably, three South American countries - Uruguay, Argentina, and Paraguay - will organize individual matches for the 2030 FIFA World Cup. The first of these matches will be played at the stadium where it all began: the Estadio Centenario in Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay.