Lausanne (AFP)

UEFA excluded Bilbao and Dublin from the host cities of the Euro on Friday this summer (11 June-11 July), for lack of guarantees on the reception of spectators, reallocating to Seville the matches planned in the Basque Country and sharing those of Dublin between Saint Petersburg and London, she announced.

Already postponed for a year due to the pandemic, the tournament will finally take place in eleven cities across eleven countries: Munich, in the hot seat, has been confirmed and will welcome the Germany-France shock on June 15, while it There was no longer any doubt about Baku, Rome, Bucharest, Glasgow, Copenhagen, Budapest and Amsterdam.

Imagined by former UEFA president Michel Platini, this unprecedented pan-European format was initially to be held in thirteen cities in thirteen countries, then twelve after the eviction of Brussels at the end of 2017 in the face of obstacles to the construction of its large stadium.

UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin was delighted to be able to "guarantee a safe and festive environment", with spectators "at all matches", a requirement posed by the body in March despite the health crisis.

"There is a little work ahead of us, we are starting again - camp, travel, all the logistics," for his part tweeted the Polish Zbigniew Boniek, vice-president of UEFA, even before the official decision.

Saint Petersburg, which was already among the host cities, will therefore recover three new matches in the first round, namely Poland-Slovakia, Sweden-Slovakia and Sweden-Poland.

"Today, we are leaving on 50% (of spectators, editor's note). This is the limit confirmed by UEFA. If there is the possibility of changing, it will be an increase", underlined Friday in the newspaper Sport- Express the president of the Russian organizing committee, Alexeï Sorokin.

For its part, London will resume the round of 16 scheduled in Dublin, which will therefore be added to the seven meetings that the British capital was to host in the legendary Wembley stadium, including the semi-finals and the final.

Not provided for in the initial organization, Seville had for several days been the preferred solution for the Spanish federation to resume the four meetings scheduled in Bilbao, excluded Wednesday by UEFA for having set too drastic sanitary conditions for the reception of the public.

Faced with this "unilateral" decision, the Basque organizers have let it be known that they plan to take the case to court to recover the expenses of 1.2 million euros already incurred.

For several weeks already, Budapest, Saint Petersburg, Baku, Amsterdam, Bucharest, Glasgow, Copenhagen, Rome and London had all promised gauges between 25% and 100%.

Munich will welcome "14,500 spectators at least," UEFA said in its press release on Friday.

© 2021 AFP