FRANKFURT: Wolfgang Niersbach was hired originally by the (then West) German football federation as media director when the country hosted the finals of the European Championship in 1988.
Now, as new president of the Deutscher Fussball Bund, Niersbach wants to see the European finals back again and is considering submitting a bid to UEFA for the 2020 finals.
Nierbach left his post as chief executive of the DFB six weeks ago to succeed Theo Zwanziger as president. The DFB is the largest and most powerful domestic federation in continental western Europe and Niersbach has set out his ambitions in an interview with the biweekly football magazine Kicker.
Last month UEFA set a May 15 deadline for expressions of interest. The issue will be discussed by DFB’s executive committee on April 27. UEFA has promised a decision by late 2013 or early 2014 for the finals which will, like the expanded 2016 finals in France, feature 24 nations.
At the UEFA Congress in Istanbul month Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Prime Minister of Turkey, insisted his country would bid. Turkey lost out to France by one vote in the 2016 vote among the UEFA executive committee. However the Turkish city of Istanbul is already bidding to host the 2020 Olympic Games.
A German bid for Euro 2020 would not carry Olympic complications.
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