NYON: London and Munich are the only two cities which submitted applications for the semi-final and final packages for Euro 2020 writes KEIR RADNEDGE.

The European federation and its president, Michel Platini, would not concede any disappointment but the fact that only two national associations have pursued the climactic moments of the European Championship may be considered a lack of belief in the overall concept.
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By deadline day, UEFA had received group bid hosting dossiers from 19 member associations representing 19 candidate cities, including Cardiff and Glasgow, as well as Amsterdam, Brussels, Dublin and Rome but only the two for the semi finals and final package.
Thus major European football powers such as Italy, Spain and Holland preferred to pursue ‘merely’  secondary role.
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Thirty-two member associations had expressed an interest in hosting the tournament by the first deadline of 12 September 2013 and were thus provided with the detailed bid requirements to allow them to prepare their dossiers for the subsequent phase of the process.

The Euro 2020 finals will be staged in 13 cities across Europe, according to a decision taken by the UEFA executive committee in January 2013 after the idea was sprung on his colleagues by Platini during the Euro 2012 finals in Ukraine and Poland.

Platini, responding to the bid applications, said: “We are extremely happy to have received so many bids to host UEFA Euro 2020. The 60th year anniversary edition of the tournament will be an historic one, with matches played in many European countries.”

France withdrew a bid proposing Lyon since the country is hosting Euro 2016 while the Turkish FA decided to concentrate on a bid to host the full tournament in 2024.

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