Italy and Turkey request to merge bids boosting U.K. and Ireland’s chances to land 2028 event
Italy and Turkey have joined forces to host the UEFA EURO 2032 tournament. The two federations have announced the decision to partner for hosting the event in 2032, after they both previously wanted to host the competition for that year, as confirmed by UEFA on Friday.
UEFA have in fact stated that “has received a request from the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) and the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) to merge their individual bids into one joint bid to host UEFA EURO 2032.”
In 2021, UEFA initiated a bidding process for the hosting of two consecutive editions of its European Championship, in 2028 and 2032. The Turkish federation entered the process for both editions, while the Italian one decided to bid only for the 2032 edition. A joint bid to host the 2028 edition has also been placed by five associations: England, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
UEFA added: “If the joint bid does comply with such requirements, it will be submitted to the UEFA Executive Committee at the meeting scheduled on October 10, where the appointments for 2028 and 2032 will be made. Decisions on venues and match schedules will be made at a later stage.”
Italy already hosted the UEFA EURO championships in 1968 (and also won their first European cup), in 1980 and partially also in 2021 when multiple countries hosted the event to celebrate the 60th year of the competition and Italy won the tournament on penalties against England. On the other hand, Turkey haven’t hosted the competition yet. The two countries will now work in the upcoming months to decide the venues and the cities that will potentially host the tournament.
