Bilbao Will Remain A Host City For Next Summer’s European Championship
Julen Guerrero is one of Bilbao’s ambassadors for the EUROs (Marca)
If not for the pandemic club football should be ending this month. Champions should be crowned, European qualification sorted, and players preparing to compete in EURO 2020. Instead, football came to a standstill over two months ago. La Liga plans to resume matches in June, but the European Championship has officially been postponed until next summer to give domestic leagues and cups the necessary time to finish.
Bilbao was originally one of 12 host cities chosen for EURO 2020 along with Dublin, London, Glasgow, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Munich, Rome, Budapest, Bucharest, Saint Petersburg, and Baku. However, with uncertainty still surrounding football and society, it’s possible that some cities won’t be able to host games.
“We have had conversations with nine cities and everything is ready,” UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin told beIN Sports during an interview. “With three cities we have some problems, so we will discuss it later. In principle we will do it in twelve cities, but if not, we are ready to do it in ten, nine, or eight.”
There was immediate concern that Bilbao could be one of the cities in danger of not being able to host matches, especially with Spain being one of the hardest hit countries in Europe. Fortunately, that doesn’t appear to be the case. According to a report from Endika Río of Mundo Deportivo, Federal sources have assured that there are no issues and that Bilbao will remain as one of the host cities.
Before the tournament was postponed Bilbao was scheduled to host a total of four matches, three in the group stage and one in the knockout round. If some cities are removed then even more games could be played at San Mamés, but that remains to be seen. For now, the important thing is that Bilbao will still be a host city which will bring a significant boost to the local economy following the impact of the pandemic.