Türkiye poised to fulfill long-awaited Euro 2032 hosting dream

After enduring four unsuccessful attempts in the not-so-distant past, Türkiye is on the brink of clinching the hosting rights for a monumental international football spectacle as UEFA gears up to unveil the chosen destination for Euro 2032 this week.

For Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, this long-cherished dream of hosting one of the globe’s most prestigious sporting extravaganzas is about to become a reality.

As UEFA’s executive committee convenes on Tuesday to disclose the hosts for the 2028 and 2032 European Championships, Türkiye’s hopes now rest upon a unified proposal, one meticulously crafted in partnership with Italy for the 2032 tournament.

This particular bid, interestingly, faces no competition.

Erdoğan’s passion for Türkiye’s most beloved sport is no act; his youthful years witnessed him plying his trade at a semi-professional level, and he remains an ardent supporter of Fenerbahçe, the Istanbul giants who hold a hallowed place among the nation’s most illustrious clubs.

Securing the privilege of hosting Europe’s grandest sporting event would undoubtedly stand as one of the defining moments of his tenure in power, a moment infused with immense political symbolism.

“In modern times, the sport has always been perceived as a means for Türkiye to forge its own legitimacy and compete equally with the rest of the Western world,” observes Daghan Irak, a lecturer in media communication at the University of Huddersfield in England. “Erdoğan has not diverted from that historic strategy.”

Erdoğan ascended to the role of prime minister at the close of 2002, coinciding with Türkiye’s joint bid with Greece – a period marked by improving relations between the two nations – to host Euro 2008.

Unfortunately, their bid failed, as UEFA ultimately awarded the tournament to Austria and Switzerland.

Subsequently, Türkiye embarked on solo endeavors in its pursuit of hosting Euro 2012, only to be thwarted by a joint Ukraine-Poland candidacy.

In 2016, it was France that emerged victorious, leaving Türkiye to face defeat once again.

The country’s ambitions took another hit when it lost out to Germany for Euro 2024, with UEFA’s evaluation of the bid raising concerns about Türkiye’s “lack of an action plan in the area of human rights.”

Even as the dream endured these repeated setbacks, it is now poised to turn into reality, thanks to the absence of competing bids.

Past Turkish bids have been hampered by stadium-related issues, but according to Bagis Erten, a contributor to Socrates magazine who teaches sports communication at Kadır Has University in Istanbul, this is no longer an issue.

“If the AK Party (the ruling party since 2002) knows how to do one thing, it is to build. They love that. We really have a lot of good stadiums now,” he said.

Erten cited examples in medium-sized cities like Trabzon, on the Black Sea, Konya and Eskişehir in Central Anatolia and Izmir, the country’s third-largest city, situated on the Aegean Sea coast. “Our stadiums are now better prepared than in many other countries,” he adds.

In June, Türkiye successfully hosted the UEFA Champions League final, where Manchester City triumphed over Inter Milan at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul.

Erten insisted that Türkiye is now unequivocally prepared for the task at hand.

From a broader perspective of European integration, Irak suggests, “It is much easier for Erdoğan’s Türkiye to organize an international football tournament than to respect the verdicts of the European Court of Human Rights.”