Azerbaijan Denmark England Germany Hungary Italy Netherlands Republic of Ireland Romania Russia Scotland Spain
Dates
12 June – 12 July
Teams
24
Venue(s)
12(in 12 host cities)
The 2020 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2020 or simply Euro 2020, is scheduled to be the 16th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe organised by UEFA.[1]
It is scheduled to be held in 12 cities in 12 European countries from 12 June to 12 July 2020. Portugal are the defending champions, winning the 2016 edition. For the first time, the video assistant referee (VAR) system will be used at the UEFA European Championship.[2]
Former UEFA President Michel Platini said the tournament being hosted in several nations is a "romantic" one-off event to celebrate the 60th "birthday" of the European Championship competition.[3] The winner will earn the right to participate in the 2021 FIFA Confederations Cup. Wembley Stadium in London is planned to host the semi-finals and final for the second time, having done so before at the 1996 tournament.
While some countries had already expressed an interest in bidding to host Euro 2020,[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] then-UEFA President Michel Platini suggested at a press conference on 30 June 2012, a day before the UEFA Euro 2012 Final, that instead of having one host country (or joint hosting by multiple countries) Euro 2020 could be spread over "12 or 13 cities" across the continent.[12] At the time, UEFA already used a similar system for the UEFA European Under-17 Football Championship's "Elite Round", where each of the seven groups is hosted by a different country.
European format decision
On 6 December 2012, UEFA announced the 2020 Finals would be held in multiple cities across Europe to mark the 60th anniversary of the tournament.[13][14] The selection of the host cities does not mean an automatic qualifying berth is awarded to the national team of that nation.
UEFA reasoned that the pan-European staging of the tournament was the logical decision at a time of financial difficulty across Europe.[15][16] Reaction to UEFA's plan was mixed across Europe.[17] Critics have cited the expanded format (from 31 matches featuring 16 nations to 51 featuring 24) and its associated additional costs as the decisive factor for only one nation (Turkey) having put forward a serious bid.[18]
Bidding venues
The final list of bids was published by UEFA on 26 April 2014, with a decision on the hosts being made by the UEFA Executive Committee on 19 September 2014. There were two bids for the Finals Package (of which one was successful, marked with blue for semi-finals and final) and 19 bids for the Standard Package (of which 12 were initially successful, marked with green for quarter-finals and group stage, and yellow for round of 16 and group stage); Brussels, marked with red, were initially selected but removed from the list of venues by UEFA on 7 December 2017 and the planned games there were moved to Wembley.[19][20]
Successful bid for group stage and round of 16
Successful bid for group stage and quarter-finals
Successful bid for semi-finals and final. Later added: Group stage and round of 16
Successful bid for round of 16 and group stage at first but later removed from list
There is no automatic qualifying berth, and all 55 UEFA national teams, including the 12 national teams whose countries are scheduled to stage matches, must compete in the qualifiers for the 24 places at the finals tournament.[21][22] As the host cities were appointed by UEFA in September 2014, before the qualifiers of UEFA Euro 2020, it is possible for the national teams from the host cities to fail to qualify for the finals tournament.
The main qualifying process is now scheduled to begin in March 2019, instead of immediately in September 2018 following the 2018 FIFA World Cup, and is scheduled to end in November 2019. The format remains largely the same, although only 20 of the 24 spots for the finals tournament are to be decided from the main qualifying process, leaving four spots still to be decided. Following the admission of Kosovo to UEFA in May 2016, it was announced that the 55 members at the time would be drawn into ten groups after the completion of the UEFA Nations League (five groups of five teams and five groups of six teams, with the four participants of the UEFA Nations League Finals guaranteed to be drawn into groups of five teams), with the top two teams in each group qualifying. The qualifiers are scheduled to be played on double matchdays in March, June, September, October and November 2019.[24]
With the creation of the UEFA Nations League starting in 2018,[25][24][26][27] the 2018–19 UEFA Nations League is to be linked with UEFA Euro qualifying, providing teams another chance to qualify for Euro 2020. Four teams from each division which have not already qualified for the Euro finals are to compete in the play-offs for each division, to be played in March 2020. The winners of the play-offs for each division, to be decided by two "one-off" semi-finals (the best-ranked team vs. the fourth-best-ranked team, and the second-best-ranked team vs. the third-best-ranked team, played at home of higher ranked teams) and one "one-off" final (with the venue drawn in advance between the two semi-finals winners), are scheduled to join the 20 teams which have already qualified for the Euro finals.[27]
Venues
The venues were selected and announced by UEFA on 19 September 2014.[28] However, the UEFA Executive Committee removed Brussels as a host city on 7 December 2017 due to delays with the building of the Eurostadium. The four matches (three group stage, one round of 16) initially scheduled to be held in Brussels were reallocated to London. Therefore, Wembley Stadium will host a total of seven matches, as London was already chosen to host the semi-finals and final of the tournament.[29] On 7 December 2017, it was also announced that the opening match will take place at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, chosen ahead of Amsterdam, Glasgow, and Saint Petersburg.[29][30]
Of the 12 selected cities and countries, 8 cities and 7 countries have never hosted a European Championship finals match before. Bilbao was not a venue when Spain hosted the 1964 European Nations' Cup, and none of Azerbaijan, Denmark, Hungary, Romania, Republic of Ireland, Russia, or Scotland has hosted the tournament previously. Of the 12 selected stadia, only 2 have hosted a European Championship match before: the Stadio Olimpico (1968 and 1980) and the Johan Cruyff Arena (2000). The original Wembley stadium hosted games and the final in UEFA Euro 1996, but although on the same site, this is classified as a different stadium to the current Wembley Stadium.
Each city will host three group stage matches and one match in the round of 16 or quarter-finals. The match allocation for the 12 stadiums is as follows:
Group stage, round of 16, semi-finals, and final:London (England)
The host cities were divided into six pairings, established on the basis of sporting strength (assuming all host teams qualify), geographical considerations, and security/political constraints. The pairings were allocated to groups by means of a random draw on 7 December 2017. Each qualified host country will play a minimum of two matches at home. The group venue pairings is as follows:[29]
The draw for the final tournament will be held on 1 December 2019.[31] The 24 teams are drawn into six groups of four. The identity of the four play-off teams are not known at the time of the draw, and will be identified as play-off winners 1 to 4. The following principles will be applied:[1]
For host teams which have qualified, or may qualify through play-offs, they will be drawn into the groups based on the host city pairings.
If both host teams within one group qualify directly for the final tournament, a draw will decide which team host their head-to-head match.
If there are groups which cannot be finalised at the time of the final tournament draw, another draw will be held after the play-offs in April 2020.
Group stage
UEFA announced the tournament schedule on 24 May 2018.[32][33] The kick-off times of the group stage and round of 16 matches will be announced after the final draw.
Times are CEST (UTC+2), as listed by UEFA. If the venue is located in a different time zone, the local time is also given.[33]
Tiebreakers
If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following tie-breaking criteria are applied:[1]
Higher number of points obtained in the matches played between the teams in question;
Superior goal difference resulting from the matches played between the teams in question;
Higher number of goals scored in the matches played between the teams in question;
If, after having applied criteria 1 to 3, teams still have an equal ranking (e.g. if criteria 1 to 3 are applied to three teams that are level on points initially and these criteria separated one team from the other two who still have an equal ranking), criteria 1 to 3 are reapplied exclusively to the matches between the teams who are still level to determine their final rankings. If this procedure did not lead to a decision, criteria 5 to 10 apply;
Superior goal difference in all group matches;
Higher number of goals scored in all group matches;
Higher number of wins in all group matches;
If on the last round of the group stage, two teams are facing each other and each has the same number of points, as well as the same number of goals scored and conceded, and the score finishes level in their match, their ranking is determined by a penalty shoot-out. (This criterion is not used if more than two teams are tied.);
Fair play conduct (1 point for a single yellow card, 3 points for a red card as a consequence of two yellow cards, 3 points for a direct red card);
To determine the four best third-placed teams from the group stage which advance to the round of 16, only the results of the third-placed teams against the top two placed teams in their group are taken into account, while results against the fourth-placed team are not included. As a result, two matches played by each third-placed team will count for the purposes of determining the ranking.[1] This is different from UEFA Euro 2016, which counts all three group matches.
First match(es) will be played on 12 June 2020. Source: UEFA Rules for classification: Counting only matches against teams ranked first and second in the group, 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored; 4) Wins; 5) Fair play points in all group matches; 6) European Qualifiers overall ranking.
Knockout phase
In the knockout phase, if a match is level at the end of normal playing time, extra time is played (two periods of 15 minutes each), where each team is allowed to make a fourth substitution.[34] If still tied after extra time, the match is decided by a penalty shoot-out to determine the winners.[1]
The prize money was finalised in February 2018.[35] Each team receives a participation fee of €9.25 million, with the winner able to earn a maximum of €34M.
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