KEIR RADNEDGE REPORTS: Bilbao, Dublin and Munich have been offered four more days by UEFA to confirm whether they can host matches at the European Championship finals in June and July.

The European federation is satisfied with assurances from the other nine host cities and countries that their health protocols will permit a percentage of fans to attend matches in the tournament after its Covid-enforced postponement from last year.

UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin, after an executive committee ahead of Tuesday’s annual congress, told a media briefing: “We have postponed our final decision until Friday because we have to settle some things with three possible venues who might be excluded.

“The exco will meet on Friday through video conference and we will decide.”

Those three venues are Bilbao, Dublin and Munich. The Spanish federation is ready to offer the Estadio Sanchez Pizjuan in Seville, which has hosted several ‘neutral’ European club ties, as a replacement for Bilbao. It is also thought that UEFA favours shifting Dublin’s matches to another venue in England apart from Wembley, which already have seven matches scheduled including the semi-finals and final.

The issue is Munich concerns a lack of assurances from the regional health authority so the German DFB is also expected to have other domestic options up its sleeve.

Other dates

Other competition decisions taken by the UEFA exco were:

UEFA Women’s Champions League 2021-25: A new financial distribution model and regulatory framework have been agreed.

Host associations were appointed for the following youth championship final tournaments:

• UEFA Women’s Under-17 Championship: Estonia 2023, Sweden 2024, Faroe Islands 2025.
• UEFA Under-17 Championship: Hungary 2023, Cyprus 2024.
• UEFA Women’s Under-19 Championship: Belgium 2023, Lithuania 2024, Belarus 2025.
• UEFA Under-19 Championship: Malta 2023, Northern Ireland 2024, Romania 2025.

Jaén, Spain, was appointed host venue for the Under-19 Futsal EURO 2022.

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