UEFA still want to hold Euro 2020 in 12 countries but could leave decision on tournament to last minute, talkSPORT told

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UEFA are still ‘determined’ to use 12 host cities for this summer’s European Championships, talkSPORT has been told.

Euro 2020 was delayed by 12 months due to the coronavirus pandemic in the hope it could go ahead in 2021.

Euro 2020 is due to take place this summer

The situation remains unclear, though, with a new COVID-19 variant sending cases, hospital admissions and deaths up across the UK and rest of Europe.

Vaccines are starting to be rolled out, in some areas better than others, but it remains to be seen what the picture will look like by June when the tournament is due to take place.

As it stands, Euro 2020 will still go ahead as planned but alterations could be made late on, despite UEFA’s statement yesterday reaffirming their plans for this summer haven’t changed.

Portugal are the current holders of the Euros

Journalist Rob Harris told talkSPORT: “UEFA are insistent that the games will go on this summer. They’ve postponed them once and they are even determined to use 12 cities across Europe.

“What they’ve done is set the 12 host cities, like London, like Glasgow, like Dublin, until April to say ‘what is your plan too get fans in, can you get fans in?’

“What that tells you is they can change all these plans late on.

“We saw last year how they reformatted the Champions League with the final eight tournament in Lisbon.

“They could do that very late in the day with the Euros.”

The group stages will be held at the major stadiums of various European cities:

Group A: Stadio Olimpico (Rome, Italy) and Olympic Stadium (Baku, Azerbaijan)
Group B: Krestovsky Stadium (Saint Petersburg, Russia) and Parken Stadium (Copenhagen, Denmark)
Group C: Johan Cruyff Arena (Amsterdam, Holland) and Arena Nationala (Bucharest, Romania)
Group D: Wembley Stadium (London, England) and Hampden Park (Glasgow, Scotland)
Group E: Aviva Stadium (Dublin, Ireland) and San Mames (Bilbao, Spain)
Group F: Allianz Arena (Munich, Germany) and Puskas Arena (Budapest, Hungary)