Who Do You Want to Host Euro 2016?
Tick, tick, tick. That March 9th deadlines is now less than a week away. Don’t worry, we’re not talking about whether David Beckham will be moving the rest of his stuff to Milan. We’re talking bids to host for Euro 2016.
The big deal with Euro 2016 is that – for better or worse – it’s the year we go from 16 to 24 teams. So it will quite literally be the biggest Euros ever. So UEFA are asking for at least 9 stadiums (two x 50,000, three x 40,000, four x 30,000).
The official UEFA deadline is next Monday, and so far there are 4 confirmed bids.
France – Bid was officially confirmed last month. They want it. Should have plenty of stadiums left over from World Cup ‘98.
Italy – Bid confirmed yesterday. Missed out on hosting Euro 2012, mostly because hosting rights were awarded while Mogi-gate was still fresh in the memory.
Turkey – Bid confirmed last month. Would certainly be a nice break from the same old same old.
Sweden-Norway – Bid recently confirmed, and Sweden are building a new national stadium in Solna. Only question: After Swissaustria and Polkraine… what do we call this hybrid host? Best I can do is Swerway. Help me out?
Rumour has it that Greece, Hungary, Romania and Russia are also considering separate bids, but nothing rubberstamped yet. The joint-bid from Scotland-Wales (Scwales?) has been eaten alive by the monster known as recessionpocalypse.
I say it’s as simple as this: French President of UEFA, French team hosts Euro 2016. Hope it’s not that simple, but think it might be. Not that a Euros in France would be a bad thing. I’d love to see it return to a large European country.
Italy would be great too. Since stadia were basically modernized in the 90s and Italy’s last tournament was the 1990 World Cup, it’s fair to say that Italy hasn’t really hosted a modern day tournament. Maybe it’s about time?
Sweden/Norway I’m not sure. Two nice countries, but I’m already sick of joint bids. And my guess is that UEFA are too.
Turkey I think would be fascinating. Especially as Turkish culture is a little different to the rest of Europe (possibly because half of it is in Asia). And can you imagine the dramatic comebacks a host Turkish team would make?
Where would you like to see host Euro 2016?
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Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 56 comments.
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By Mike | March 3rd, 2009 at 1:35 pm 
haha exactly Jose! All it takes is some maturity 
Posted from 
United States
By adas | March 3rd, 2009 at 1:43 pm Mike, what are your feelings then on Israel being part of UEFA. Clearly that seems to be more of a security issue, but does that justify adding them to Europe?
By Sam | March 3rd, 2009 at 1:47 pm Turkey would rule, France would go very smoothly.
By Mike | March 3rd, 2009 at 1:50 pm Israel is also a special, difficult case. It’s even further from the EU and Europe. It is a very “European” nation though, culture-wise. Israel has incredibly strong bonds with Europe and the West as well. If I was to be a hard liner for “EU Members Only” I would say they should not be part of UEFA. But I am not, so I don’t really take issue with it.
Posted from United States
By adas | March 3rd, 2009 at 1:56 pm That brings up a good point. But what do you think about Australia for instance. Is it right to move a team from one confederation to another if that team is too dominant in its regional confederation?
By Mike | March 3rd, 2009 at 2:04 pm adas, again, Australia is very special case. It’s a country and continent, and to be honest I don’t know much about the Oceana Confederation, except that it’s often bullied by FIFA, so I can’t really say much about it or form an opinion.
Posted from United States
By adas | March 3rd, 2009 at 2:30 pm It wasn’t a fifa decision to move them though. Australia requested the move to the AFC, and both fifa and AFC said it would be ok. Plus, its starting to sound like there are an awful lot of “special” cases. I’m not trying to argue with you. I’m just trying to open up a dialouge.
By Mike | March 3rd, 2009 at 3:04 pm Well there are a lot of special cases. I mean look at everything you’ve brought up:
Australia – the only country that is a continent
Israel – Speaks for itself
Turkey – already discussed this.
I’m not saying it was FIFA’s decision to move them through, I meant that FIFA often bullied the confederation in WC qualifying and such, but again I don’t know a lot (well, anything really) about this, or about them moving to the AFC so I can’t form an opinion.
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By Francesco | March 3rd, 2009 at 4:04 pm Mike I’m not talking about the San Siro. In fact, the San Siro and the Olimpico are the only UEFA 5 star rated stadiums in Italy. It’s every other stadium that’s the problem.
By Mike | March 3rd, 2009 at 6:09 pm Oh I know Francesco, I was kidding. But it’s true, most of the stadiums are totally out dated and I’m sure pretty unsafe. Like I said before though, I would much rather host the WC than the Euros, but hey if it gets us new stadiums and I get to go to it, why not?
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By Mike | March 3rd, 2009 at 6:10 pm Wait, even Juve’s stadium isn’t 5 star? Hm, never knew that…
Posted from United States
By Francesco | March 3rd, 2009 at 7:53 pm I mean only in Italy do we have a Serie A team playing in a stadium built inside a stadium.
Around 7 years ago Cagliari built stands on the athletic track to give the stadium a more intimate feel. Of course it looks completely ridiculous to boot.
http://footballitaliano.co.uk/images/stadiums/stadio_sant%27elia.jpg
By Utku | March 3rd, 2009 at 7:54 pm if turkey played in the Asian CF, it just wouldn’t be the same. the would have no competition and just stomp all over opposing countries. Israel isn’t int he ACF because imagine if they had a WC Qualifier away game against Iran, i’m pretty sure that woudln’t turn out so swell. being turkish i would LOVE to see 2016 EUROs in Turkey. there are several new stadiums being built(including Galatasaray’s, Trabzonspor’s, and Kayserispor’s) and it would also give turkey that last little push they need to be considered a top class footy nation.
By Ibracadabra | March 3rd, 2009 at 9:53 pm Israel was a dominant force in the Asian confederation before it was forced into the European confederation due to political reasons.
People often forget that. Israel would have qualified for many more world cups if only its non-democratic neighbors would be willing to play the Israelis in peace.
By Joe | March 3rd, 2009 at 9:59 pm Post removed by moderators due to racist and/or offensive content.
By Pseudinho | March 3rd, 2009 at 10:52 pm Potential Turkish Bid
These are stadiums in Turkey that meet capacity requirements and that are built or under construction. I have 8 stadiums total. The problem is 4 of them are in Istanbul. I think a city is only allowed to use two stadiums.
Here’s a list of cities with capacity.
Izmir 65K
Ankara 35K
Kayseri 32-33K
Sanliufa 30K
Istanbul 80K, 53-54K, 50-51K, 42K
Posted from United States
By Utku | March 4th, 2009 at 7:14 am Joe : obviously the country isn’t austria or france. Portugal, Spain, Italy, Ukraine, Russia, and Poland are all countries that have as much if not more crime than Turkey. just becuase they’re a muslim nation and the roads aren’t paved with gold doesn’t mean that it’s a “shit hol”. and just so you know galatasaray’s stadium is no where near a shit hold, just because it has a track field surrounding doesn’t mean it’s a bad stadium, it probably has a better atmosphere than any stadium you have ever been to or see. so stop being so fucking ignorant and realize that maybe other nations aren’t as rich as yours but still deserve a chance. Mexico got the host the World Cup and if you tell if there is more crime and poverty in Turkey than Mexico, your opinions really aren’t valid.
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By Pseudinho | March 4th, 2009 at 8:41 am Galatasaray’s new stadium with be finished this year. Is an all seater state of the art stadium. With no running track.
Posted from United States
By Pseudinho | March 4th, 2009 at 8:42 am http://www.worldstadiums.com/stadium_menu/past_future/pictures/future_stadiums/istanbul_yen.shtml
Posted from United States
By Alex | March 4th, 2009 at 4:49 pm There’s not a chance in hell UEFA will give a European championship to Turkey. Their status as a European nation is already very much open to debate and chances are the Germans, French, English, and Italians that contral UEFA will not take too kindly to Turkey’s bid. Football at this level can also be a political creature. As an Italian, I would love to see Italy get it as an excuse to modernize the stadia. It’s a pity when members of the French league play day in and day out in better venues than Serie A clubs.
Posted from United States
By Alex | March 4th, 2009 at 4:53 pm And to all my Turkish friends here… if ordinary Europeans are panicking at the thought of Turkey’s entrance into the European Union, do you honestly think that the creme de la creme of European society will validate Turkey in this manner? Maybe when hell freezes over.
And as someone who has been to Turkey, seen its charms, and heard of the great Turkish passion for football, I think this is a sad truth. I would rather see Turkey host a Euro than, for example, Greece or Portugal. But I don’t think it will ever happen.
Posted from United States
By Seth | March 5th, 2009 at 3:40 pm Yes, I would love for Turkey to host it! It’s a very beautiful country, with a mosaic of both Asian and European culture. And their football team is always underrated. IMO, they’re easily in the top 15 nations of the world.
By Pseudinho | March 5th, 2009 at 6:01 pm Turkey is definitely in my list of 5 most underrated countries. Here’s my most underrated in no particular order.
- Turkey
- United States
- Paraguay
- Ghana
- Korea DPR
Posted from United States
By Cihan | March 10th, 2009 at 9:27 pm Hands down Turkey…. I no longer want the same old… I want the passion to be put back into the game…. and Turkey is the avenue to do that…. and Damn right I wanna see those Turkish come backs…. just like how Galatasaray did against Bordeaux….
By g.horsun | March 14th, 2009 at 8:00 am i think turkey should host the finals…i mean…they have good stadiums and 4 of them are in the same city…but the city is divided into two parts so would it work out as european istanbul and asian istanbul…here is a list of stadiums i turkey..
Ataturk Olympic Stadium – European Istanbul-80k
Aslantepe Turk Telekom Arena/Ali Sami Yen – European Istanbul-54k
Sukru Saracoglu Stadium – Asian Istanbul -52k
Izmir Olympic Stadium – Izmir -60k
Kayseri Kadir Has Stadium – Kayseri -33k
Huseyin Avni Aker Stadium – Trabzon -29k
there is many more
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Canada
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