EURO 2020: La Cartuja will be the Spanish venue for the EURO
UEFA confirmed that Seville will replace Bilbao as the venue for EURO 2020. As decided by the UEFA Executive Committee meeting, the La Cartuja stadium in Seville will be the alternative venue to San Mamés in the competition.
UEFA explained that the games Bilbao’s stadium was going to host will be played in the other host stadiums of the EURO 2020. La Cartuja will host 3 group stage matches of the Spanish team and 1 round of 16. This will be with the support of the Autonomous Community of Andalusia. They also confirmed the intention to allow spectators to 30% of the capacity of the field.
“Following the decision of the local authorities (of Bilbao), it became clear that it was highly unlikely that the fans would be able to attend the matches in Bilbao stadium. As a result, UEFA proposed moving those matches to another venue in that host country. So the fans could attend the matches after a year without being able to watch live football in stadiums,” UEFA announced.
In a statement, he said that “this decision will create a festive atmosphere in all matches that take place in UEFA’s most important national team competition.” Spain will therefore play in La Cartuja against Sweden on June 14, against Poland on June 19, and Slovakia on June 23. (Check out EURO 2020 fixtures.)
Two days ago in a joint statement, the Bilbao City Council, the Provincial Council of Bizkaia, and the Basque Government announced the “unilateral” decision of UEFA, which they do not share, and announced that they will enforce the contract they signed with this body to ask for financial compensation.
Host Stadiums and fans
Saint Petersburg, Budapest, Baku, Amsterdam, Bucharest, Copenhagen, Glasgow, London, and Rome have guaranteed a capacity between 25% and 100%
Saint Petersburg has confirmed a capacity of 50%, with the possibility of increasing it by the end of April. Budapest aims to ensure that the stadiums can be occupied at full capacity, with strict entry requirements.
Baku has ensured a capacity of 50% and the fans visit Azerbaijan with a negative Covid-19 test.
Amsterdam, Bucharest, Copenhagen, and Glasgow have secured a capacity of 25% -33%. The four sites are keeping open the possibility of increasing capacity later this month.
London has assumed a minimum capacity of 25% for all matches. The city hopes to secure a larger capacity for the semi-finals and final in early June.
Rome also guaranteed that the Olympic Stadium will accommodate 25% of its capacity, which is around 16,000 people.
The Italian capital will host the opening match of the competition on June 11 between Turkey and Italy; the other two matches of the group stage in Italy and one of the quarterfinals.
UEFA had scheduled the other quarterfinal matches (July 2 and 3) to be played in Saint Petersburg, Munich, and Baku.
The semi-finals (July 6 and 7) and the final (July 11) will be played at Wembley Stadium in London, England. As mentioned above, London will work on having the maximum possible fans in the stadium for the most important matches of EURO.
