It has been announced today that UEFA have ratified the decision that UEFA Euro 2032 will be co-hosted by Italy and Turkey in nine years’ time.
Due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, they were banned by UEFA and, as a consequence, their bids for UEFA Euro 2028 and UEFA Euro 2032 were automatically rejected, allowing the Italy-Turkey bid to go unopposed.
It had initially been that just Italy were bidding for the tournament with Turkey competing with the UK & Ireland bid for UEFA Euro 2028 but the Turkish football federation pulled out of the race for that tournament in order to join up with the Italians for 2032.
The Stadio Olimpico in Rome hosted three group stage matches as well as a quarter-final at UEFA Euro 2020 in 2021. Italy has not exclusively hosted a tournament since the 1990 FIFA World Cup but were hosts of both the 1968 and 1980 UEFA European Championships. Turkey have never hosted any matches of a major tournament, despite bidding for UEFA Euro 2008, UEFA Euro 2012 and UEFA Euro 2016 in the last couple of decades.
It has not yet been confirmed but is expected that the UEFA European Championships will be further expanded from 24 to 32 teams in either 2028 or 2032. Despite that expansion, there is still expected to be just ten stadiums used with Italy and Turkey picking five each. The president of the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), Gabriele Gravina, has suggested that two or three new stadiums could be built in Italy.
Italy originally proposed 11 grounds with San Siro in Milan, Turin’s Juventus Stadium, the Bentegodi in Verona, Luigi Ferraris in Genoa, Bologna’s Renato Dall’Ara, the Artemio Franchi in Florence, Stadio Olimpico in Rome, Stadio San Nicola in Bari, Unipol Domus on the island of Sardinia in Cagliari as well as Stadio Diego Armando Maradona in Naples being suggested. The likelihood is that, without any new stadiums being built, Milan, Turin, Rome, Naples and Florence would be selected.
Turkey’s original bid consisted of ten stadiums in eight cities with three in Istanbul. Those three being the Ataturk Olympic Stadium, Rams Park and Ulker Stadium. The expectation is that the Ataturk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul as well as Trabzon, Antalya, Ankara and another of the two grounds in Istanbul would be selected.