KEIR RADNEDGE REPORTS: European football federation UEFA has set the bidding process under way for potential hosts for the 2028 European Championship finals.

The 2024 finals will be staged in Germany.

UEFA has set the date in stone, whatever the wrangles to come with world governing body FIFA over the shape of the future international match calendar. FIFA president Gianni Infantino wants to overturn tradition by staging the World Cup every two years rather than every four.

The European governing body has given interested member associations until March 2022 to declare an interest, with the appointment of the host(s) set to take place in September 2023.

Euro 2028 will feature 24 teams playing 51 matches as at the rescheduled 2020 finals this past summer. Joint bids from two neighbouring countries are permitted. In that case both would be seeded to the finals. More than two and this would not be the case.

Interested bidders will need to offer 10 stadia, with the following capacities:

Minimum of 1 stadium with at least 60,000 net seating capacity
Minimum of 1 stadium, preferably 2 stadiums, with at least 50,000 net seating capacity
Minimum of 4 stadiums with at least 40,000 net seating capacity
Minimum of 3 stadiums with at least 30,000 net seating capacity

The bidding timeline is::

23 March 2022 – Deadline for national associations to confirm their interest to bid
30 March 2022 – Bid requirements are made available to the bidders
5 April 2022 – Announcement of bidders by UEFA
12 April 2023 – Final Bid dossier submission deadline
September 2023 – Appointment of host(s) of UEFA EURO 2028

#####