Uefa still maintaining commitment to 12-city Euro 2020

Uefa has played down claims it is considering dropping three of the 12 cities due to host matches at this year's pan-continental European Championships.

Media reports earlier this week suggested that Bilbao in Spain, Dublin in Ireland and Glasgow in Scotland are set to be removed from the list of host cities, partly because the governing body is keen to stage matches in front of as many supporters as possible, and those three cities are all in countries where the prospect of fans being able to attend sports events looks some way off.

Euro 2020 was originally meant to be held last summer, but was postponed by 12 months as the coronavirus pandemic swept across Europe, albeit Uefa maintained that it would be sticking to the original hosting model.

It yesterday refuted the claim that alternative proposals to the 12-city concept are being drawn up, stating: "Since the tournament was announced, as to be staged across 12 countries, it has remained Uefa's intention to stage it in 12 countries."

Uefa, which has set a deadline of 5 April to receive plans from the 12 countries on their hosting plans given the Covid-19 situation, was reported to be prepared to drop some if they cannot guarantee that a significant number of spectators will be allowed into games at the championships, which are set to start in Rome on 11 June.

Bilbao, Dublin and Glasgow are each due to host four Euro 2020 games - three in the group stages and one in the round of 16.

London’s Wembley Stadium, which is scheduled to host seven matches, including both semi-finals and the final, is likely to be able to welcome a sizeable number of fans for the latter stages, with England set to move out of its current state of lockdown by the end of June. 

One option therefore would be for Uefa to shift a number of - if not all - the fixtures scheduled for Ireland and Scotland to England instead, after UK prime minister Boris Johnson said earlier this week that England “would certainly be on” for hosting additional games. 

Uefa has not yet received information from the Irish government over its plans to reintroduce fans into stadiums, while Scotland remains in a stricter state of lockdown than England. 

The complete list of host cities for Euro 2020 is Amsterdam, Baku, Bilbao, Bucharest, Budapest, Copenhagen, Dublin, Glasgow, London, Munich, Rome and Saint Petersburg.