UEFA confirmed that the Russian and Turkish federations have declared their interest in hosting Euro 2028 or 2032, and that it has also received a joint bid from the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland for 2028 and another from Italy for 2032.
The designation of the venues for both competitions will be made in September 2023, as recalled by the body, which had set the date of this Wednesday as the deadline for the declaration of interest of possible candidates. In this way, the candidates for Euro 2028 are the joint project of England, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Scotland and Wales, as well as Russia or Turkey.
Both Russia and Turkey have applied in their case for the 2032 edition, along with Italy. Although FIFA and UEFA suspended all Russian teams – national teams and clubs – on February 28 after the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and they cannot participate in their competitions until further notice, the Russian Federation, which is the that the organization of the European Championship has requested, does not currently have any suspension imposed.
Given the current situation, the UEFA Executive Committee, which is scheduled to meet on April 7 and May 10, will remain waiting to call new extraordinary meetings, regularly and continuously when necessary, as confirmed by EFE. Given the declaration of interest of the Russian Football Union, the body, according to the evolution of events, will evaluate the legal situation and adopt new decisions as necessary.
FIFA and UEFA jointly decided on February 28 to suspend all Russian national teams and clubs from participating in their competitions until further notice, which implies the exclusion of Russia from the Qatar 2022 World Cup, for which it had to play the playoff UEFA changed the venue for the Champions League final from Saint Petersburg to Paris and ended its association with Gazprom, the Russian energy company, in all competitions, to which it had been linked since 2012.
Also FIFA, in coordination and consultation with UEFA and other stakeholders, decided to amend the Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players (RSTP) to provide legal certainty and clarity on a number of issues and address the consequences of the war on the players. For this reason, the new temporary Annex 7 of the Regulations has been introduced, entitled “Temporary regulations to deal with the exceptional situation arising from the war in Ukraine”, which includes provisions related to the suspension of contracts between players/coaches and clubs, which are affiliated with the Ukrainian Football Association (UAF) and the Russian Football Union (FUR).
The new provisions allow, among other things, for affected players to play for another club until June 30, 2022. For this reason, the UEFA Executive Committee decided to include a provision allowing clubs to register a maximum of two additional players, who were previously registered with a UAF or FUR affiliated club and whose contracts have been suspended in accordance with Annex 7 of the FIFA RSTP.
