Lausanne (AFP)

No change of stadiums: UEFA confirmed on Wednesday that the next Euro football tournament will be held in the original twelve host cities, despite the complications linked to the postponement to 2021, and will specify the schedule of selection matches between now and the main continental tournament .

The 16th edition of the European Nations Championship, postponed by one year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, will begin on June 11, 2021 in Rome and will end just a month later in London, also the scene of the semi-finals . In the meantime, the competition will take place in Amsterdam, Baku, Bilbao, Bucharest, Budapest, Copenhagen, Dublin, Glasgow, Munich and Saint Petersburg.

The new Euro program had raised doubts about the ability of a "reduced number" of cities to maintain their commitment in 2021, according to UEFA's own admission.

"The idea is that we stay in the same cities. We have talked to nine cities and everything is settled. But with three cities, we have problems," admitted its president Aleksander Ceferin to beIN Sports in May.

In the absence of a satisfactory solution, the Slovenian leader had shown himself willing to organize the pan-European tournament "in ten, nine or eight" cities. But despite these upheavals, the European football authority has stayed the course.

"The twelve original host cities have been confirmed," Giorgio Marchetti, UEFA deputy secretary general, told a press conference after an executive committee meeting on Wednesday.

- Dams in the fall -

The format of a competition that has broken out in several countries dates back to Ceferin's predecessor at the head of UEFA, the French Michel Platini, eager to honor the 60th anniversary of the Euro.

On Wednesday, the body based in Nyon in Switzerland also unveiled the dates of the dams supposed to grant the last four tickets for the Euro.

Initially planned for the end of March 2020 but delayed by the pandemic of new coronavirus, these matches disputed by four "routes" of qualification, with two semi-finals and a final by group, will be held on October 8 and November 12.

Up to three Euro host countries can still hope to join the 20 teams already qualified: Romania or Hungary (lane A), Ireland (lane B) and Scotland (lane C). In track D, there is no host country.

Finally, the calendar of the League of Nations has also been unveiled by UEFA, the organizer of this bi-annual competition originally created to liven up the seasons without major tournaments or qualifications.

- Three matches per international window -

Despite the postponement of the Euro, the UEFA executive committee maintained the competition in 2020, the first edition of which was won in June 2019 by Portugal.

Group matches will be spread out in September (3/4/5 and 6/7/8 September), October (10/11 and 13/14 October) and November (14/15 and 17/18 November).

UEFA made no mention of the final tournament, which was theoretically organized at the end of the season. This subject was not on the executive committee's agenda and will be dealt with later, according to a source close to the body.

The reigning European champion Cristiano Ronaldo's Seleção will face the French world champions in this second League of Nations. This will prefigure the enticing duel planned between the two nations in the first round of the Euro, in a year in Budapest.

The national teams whose friendly matches had been canceled between March and June will be able to catch up on October 7 and 8, then on November 11 and 12, two slots reserved by UEFA for this occasion. Or three matches in each of these two international windows (one friendly, two in the League of Nations), against two usually.

This should allow the Federations to replenish their funds, largely amputated by the effects of the health crisis. At the start of June, the president of the FFF Noël Le Graët had thus mentioned to AFP a loss of around "ten million" euros for the four matches of the Blues postponed.

© 2020 AFP