Euro 2020
The 2021 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2021 or simply Euro 2021, is scheduled to be the 16th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA).[1]
The tournament, to be held in 12 cities in 12 UEFA countries, was originally scheduled to take place from 12 June to 12 July 2020. On 17 March 2020, UEFA announced that the tournament would be delayed by a year due to the 2020 coronavirus pandemic in Europe, and proposed it take place from 11 June to 11 July 2021. The competition was postponed in order to reduce pressure on the public services in affected countries and to provide space in the calendar for the completion of domestic leagues which had been suspended.[2]
Former UEFA President Michel Platini said the tournament is being hosted in several nations as a "romantic" one-off event to celebrate the 60th "birthday" of the European Championship competition.[3] Having the largest capacity of any of the stadiums entered for the competition, Wembley Stadium in London is scheduled to host the semi-finals and final for the second time, having done so before at the 1996 tournament in the stadium's former incarnation. The Stadio Olimpico in Rome was chosen to host the opening game, involving Turkey and hosts Italy.
Portugal are the defending champions, having won the 2016 edition. For the first time, the video assistant referee (VAR) system will be used at the UEFA European Championship
While some countries had already expressed an interest in bidding to host the tournament,[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] 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), the tournament could be spread over "12 or 13 cities" across the continent.[13] At the time, UEFA already used a similar system for the UEFA European Under-17 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 tournament would be held in multiple cities across Europe to mark the 60th anniversary of the tournament.[14][15] The selection of the host cities did not guarantee an automatic qualifying berth to the national team of that country.
UEFA reasoned that the pan-European staging of the tournament was the logical decision at a time of financial difficulty across Europe.[16][17] Reaction to UEFA's plan was mixed across Europe.[18] 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.[19]
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
Effects of the coronavirus pandemic
In 2020, the pandemic in Europe of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) raised concerns regarding its potential impact on players, staff and visitors to the twelve host cities.[23] At the UEFA Congress in early March, UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin said the organisation was confident that the situation could be dealt with, while general secretary Theodore Theodoridis stated that UEFA was maintaining contact with the World Health Organization and national governments regarding the coronavirus.[24] The impact of the coronavirus grew in March, as numerous domestic and UEFA competition matches began taking place behind closed doors. By 13 March 2020, upcoming UEFA competition fixtures were postponed, while major European leagues were suspended, including the Bundesliga, La Liga, Ligue 1, Premier League and Serie A.[25] UEFA announced that a videoconference would be held on 17 March with representatives of its 55 member associations, along with a FIFPro representative and the boards of the European Club Association and European Leagues, to discuss the response to the outbreak for domestic and European competitions, including Euro 2020.[26] At the meeting, UEFA announced that the tournament would be postponed to the following year, proposing that it take place from 11 June to 11 July 2021.[2] Though this window was previously reserved for the expanded FIFA Club World Cup, the FIFA Council will discuss rescheduling the Club World Cup for a later date.[27] The postponement allows for pressure to be reduced on the public services in affected countries, while also providing space in the calendar for domestic European leagues which had been suspended to complete their seasons.
Qualification
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.[28][29] As the host cities were appointed by UEFA in September 2014, before the qualifiers, it is possible for the national teams from the host cities to fail to qualify for the finals tournament.
The qualifying draw was held on 2 December 2018 at the Convention Centre Dublin in Dublin, Republic of Ireland.[30]
The main qualifying process started in March 2019, instead of immediately in September 2018 following the 2018 FIFA World Cup, and ended 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 were played on double matchdays in March, June, September, October and November 2019.[31]
With the creation of the UEFA Nations League starting in 2018,[32][31][33][34] the 2018–19 UEFA Nations League is to be linked with UEFA Euro qualifying, providing teams another chance to qualify for the tournament. Four teams from each division that have not already qualified for the Euro finals are to compete in the play-offs for each division. 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 that have already qualified for the Euro finals.[34]
Qualified teams
Of the currently 20 teams that have qualified for the tournament, 17 are returning from the 2016 edition. Among them are Belgium and Italy, who both recorded flawless qualifying campaigns (10 wins in 10 matches),[35][36] defending European champions Portugal and world champions France, with Germany also qualifying for a record 13th straight European Championship.[37] Finland will make their European Championship debut, having never previously qualified for a major tournament.[38] The Netherlands and Denmark returned after missing out in 2016, with the Dutch featuring in a major tournament for the first time since 2014.[39][40] For the first time, Austria and Wales reached successive European Championship tournaments.[41][42] Greece, winners in 2004, were the only former champions which failed to qualify, missing their second straight European Championship and third consecutive major tournament.[43]
Of the twelve host countries, seven managed to qualify directly for the tournament. Four will enter the play-offs, with a maximum of three being able to qualify, while Azerbaijan were entirely eliminated following the qualifying group stage
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