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UK and Ireland to host EURO 2028; Italy and Turkey to co-host EURO 2032

NBC Sports
·2 min read

The hosts for the 2028 and 2032 European championships have been confirmed, with the UK and Republic of Ireland co-hosting EURO 2028 and Italy and Turkey hosting EURO 2032.

UEFA announced the hosts for the upcoming tournaments in their headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland on Tuesday, with the 2028 bid from the UK and Ireland unchallenged.

Turkey and Italy previously had separate bids but combined their bids and will now host in 2032.

Historic bid from the UK and Republic of Ireland

The UK and Ireland bid will see 10 stadiums used, six in England and one in each of Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The 24-team tournament will have an average capacity of 58,000, which would make it the largest European championships in history.

The stadiums used in England will be Wembley Stadium and the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, Villa Park in Birmingham, Everton's new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock in Liverpool, the Etihad Stadium in Manchester and Newcastle's St James' Park, while games will also take place in the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Hampden Park in Glasgow, the Aviva Stadium in Dublin and Casement Park in Belfast.

All five nations of the UK and Ireland are still expected to compete in qualifying for EURO 2028 but two host spots will be held if any of the host nations fail to qualify for EURO 2028.

For example: if England, Wales and Scotland all qualify for EURO 2028 outright, the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland are guaranteed to qualify if they miss out on qualification through the normal procedure. But if all five host nations fail to qualify, only the two teams with the best record in qualifying will play in the tournament.

Our partners in the UK at Sky Sports believe that the opening game will be played in Cardiff, while the semifinals and final will be played at Wembley. The split of games is also expected to be 28 games in England, with six in each of Scotland, Ireland and Wales and five games in Northern Ireland.

Italy and Turkey to co-host EURO 2032 tournament

After bidding for many tournaments unsuccessfully, Turkey are finally hosting a major tournament for the first time.

Their decision to withdraw from the bidding for 2028 led to all of their focus to co-host 2032 with Italy and it will be an intriguing tournament.

UEFA announced that a shortlist of 20 stadiums across Italy and Turkey have been put forward, with 10 to be selected by October 2026. There will be five stadiums in Italy and five stadiums in Turkey used for the tournament.

Italy have hosted the European championships twice before (1968 and 1980) and they are the current reigning champions after winning the pan-European tournament held in 2021, which was delayed by one year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.