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The United Kingdom and Ireland have been selected as the hosts of Euro 2028, the continent’s sporting body UEFA announced on Tuesday.
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Italy and Turkey are set to announce the continental event in 2032. Turkey withdrew from the running to host the 2028 event to forge an alliance with Italy.
Belfast, Birmingham, Cardiff, Dublin, Glasgow, Liverpool, London, Manchester and Newcastle are in the reckoning to be selected as host cities.
Italy was likely to win any contested vote for 2032 even amid doubts the nation could finish a massive construction project to build and upgrade the stadiums needed for a 24-team, 51-game tournament.
UEFA gains stability over the organization if Italy and Turkey each has to provide just five stadiums despite its own bid rules stating that only neighboring member federations can propose co-hosting.
Rome and Istanbul are separated by about 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) across the Mediterranean Sea and Aegean Sea with flights taking more than two hours.
Though Italy and Turkey both get direct entry to Euro 2032 as hosts, UEFA will not offer five automatic places for the 2028 hosts. One option is putting all five into traditional qualifying groups and awarding the automatic places to the two best records among the non-qualifiers.
– With inputs from AP
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