Georgia and Celtic trio mull Euro 2020 bids
Reuters - Tuesday 15 May 2012, 13:24
Georgia and a combination of
Scotland, Wales and Ireland declared their interest on Tuesday
in hosting the European Championships in 2020, joining Turkey in
the race to stage the event for the first time.
The Football Association of Ireland (FAI), which previously
considered a bid with their Scottish counterparts to host Euro
2008, said preliminary talks had been held between the three
associations and that they would explore a joint bid in more
detail over the next 18 months.
With the deadline to express an interest expiring later on
Tuesday, Georgia said it would go it alone with a bid, ditching
an original plan to co-host with Azerbaijan after Baku withdrew
its interest in order to focus on a bid for the 2020 Olympics.
Turkey filed its candidacy last month but it is also bidding
for the 2020 Olympics, raising concerns over whether Istanbul
can host both events in the space of two months.
The competition will be expanded from 16 to 24 teams after
this summer's championship, placing a greater demand on bidding
countries who will need to have up to 10 stadiums to host
matches.
Scotland and Wales, who briefly mulled a bid to host in
2016, would not be able to provide the required number but could
do so with Ireland which may be able to use the 82,000 capacity
Croke Park Gaelic sports ground, as well as the 50,000-seat
Aviva Stadium, built on the grounds of the flattened Lansdowne
Road.
Georgia would have to build a number of new stadiums and the
country's sports minister detailed its plans on Tuesday after
confirming that a formal expression of interest had been sent to
UEFA.
Construction of a new stadium in the Black Sea resort of
Batumi would start this year, with further new stadiums planned
for Gori, Ozurgeti and Zugdidi and major overhauls of stadiums
in Tbilisi and the country's second largest city of Kutais, Lado
Vardzelashvili told a televised news conference.
Local news agency www.vivil.ge reported that the country's
largest stadium, the Boris Paichadze National Stadium, has a
capacity of 55,000 with Tbilisi's Mikheil Meskhi Stadium
currently holding 25,000.
UEFA requires at least two stadiums of 50,000 seats; three
of 40,000 and four of 30,000.
Poland and Ukraine will host this year's competition.
Ireland are the only nation bidding to host Euro 2020 that have
qualified for the finals that start in just over three weeks
time.