Earlier this week, Uefa, the European Football Association, announced that the scheduled meeting of the executive committee will be moved from May 27 to June 17. One of the reasons was that three of the twelve designated EM cities could not fully guarantee that one can stand as an EM organizer.

- We have had talks with nine cities where everything is ready. We have problems with three cities that we will continue to talk to, ”Uefa President Aleksander Ceferin said.

He did not want to state which cities it was about. Glasgow was early identified as one, but dementia quickly came from Scotland.

Distributes the matches

Karl-Erik Nilsson is a member of Uefa's executive committee. He confirms that there are some question marks around some cities, but is of the opinion that the twelve appointed organizers give the green light and that the European Championship playoffs will be decided as planned June 11 to July 11, 2021.

The cities are Copenhagen, Glasgow, London, Munich, Rome, Baku, St. Petersburg, Budapest, Bucharest, Amsterdam, Bilbao and Dublin.

- My living tip is that there will be these twelve host cities. However, you have not got a hundred percent okay all the way. This is one of the reasons why Uefa's meeting has been moved to 17 June. Should it be that someone for some reason cannot complete and jump off, you will probably not bring in any new organizer but rather try to distribute the matches to the already existing organizers, says Nilsson.

TT: Has Sweden received a request to possibly take over the host if any of the designated organizer countries back down?

- No.

"A Utopia"

With the then newly built Friends arena in the back, the Football Association applied to be able to participate and arrange the scattered European Championship play-off 2020.

But Uefa preferred the Park in Copenhagen.

- In 2014, we were very much part of the trip and then we were incredibly disappointed not to be given the opportunity, says Karl-Erik Nilsson.

When Brussels 2017 announced that the city would not have its intended European arena ready in time, Sweden and the Friends arena announced their interest as a substitute.

Uefa chose instead to place more matches for Wembley in London.

A third attempt to get a part of the European Championship to Sweden almost excludes Karl-Erik Nilsson.

- I understand that hopes are being raised, but I think it is a utopia to think that you are taking in another host city. I think you (the cities with problems) will do what you can to arrange. It is a world event, which many people only get the chance to arrange once in a lifetime, so to speak. Some details remain to be resolved, but I don't think Uefa will turn to any new host cities, he says.