I was alerted to the existence of the report by a piece of the BBC website which focussed lazily on some aspects of the Scotish bid, while not referring to any shortcomings in England or Wales, and merely mentioning the other bids.
There will be 13 venues for Euro 2012, twelve "standard venues" for group games, and one for the semi-finals and final. Standard venues therefore stage 4 games (three group and either a round of 16 or quarter final), while the Finals stadium holds only three games, (two semi-finals and the final itself).
Only two stadiums, Munchen and Wembley have bid for the finals package, and both are also in line as "standard venues". I am hoping the final stadium is chosen first with the winner disqualified from the other packages. The criteria evaluated by UEFA are on
1. Vision, Concept and Legacy
2. Social repsonsibility and Sustainability
3. Political and Economic
4. Legal Aspects
5. Stadium
6. Mobility
7. Accomodation
8. Event Promotion
9. Commercial
Looking at the English bid first, Wembley Stadium is the biggest of those being offered, around 20,000 better than Munchen. The number of hotel rooms for "key UEFA target groups" does not meet the bid target for the final package, (its OK for standard). It is noted that London hotel rooms are costly (slightly above limits set by UEFA, especially in the luxury hotels segment). IN commom with most bidders, it appears that there is a guarantee of room rates not being inflated by the event. Not sure how that works in London or anywhere else for that matter. It is noted the London fan zone would not be in a central location, and that guarantees in relation to promotion at National level, including fan zones in other cities is weak.
Munchen would need to add temporary hospitality outside the stadium, as there is not sufficient in the stadium, there is no hotel rooms problem there, but they have the same problem at national level and fan zones outside the host city.
All in all, there is little to choose between the two venues, and I wonder if the 20,000 extra seats Wembley offers will be the deciding factor?
The other bids
Baku - a new stadium, only just short of 70,000 seats. This is due for completion next year anyway, at a ridiculously high cost. The Evaluation report for Azerbeijan is strong in almost every area, except accomodation for ordinary fans.
Minsk - new stadium, Dinamo Arena - considerable further out of town than the exisiting Dinamo Stadium. The stadium is due to open in 2019. The ground only just reaches the minimum size, with its planned 35,000 capacity liable to be reduced to just over 30,000 by event constraints. There are other criticisms of the ground, but many are due to lack of information. The political and economic stability of the country is rated as "relatively low", although UEFA carefully says this is what the World bank says. The bid is also poor on public transport and hotels.
Brussels - new stadium, the Eurostadium, with 62,613 seats. The stadium is due for completion in 2018 and it says Anderlecht will operate it. I am not certain of the absolute location, but it appears to be either another rebuild at Heysel, or adjacent. I wonder if this means Anderlecht will be moving. Their are minor problems with the accomodation situation, but very little not to commend the Brussels bid.
Sofia - new stadium which will only go ahead if they win their bid, 33,621 seats. I think it is the same site as the existing Slavia Sofia stadium. The Bulgarian bid falls short of UEFA requirements in most categories.
Copenhagen - Parken, existing stadium with 38,190 seats. There are some issues with the groups, both in relation to hospitality and disabled supporters, and the media. The car park needs re-surfacing. Some of the other aspects are not as good as other cities, and they have not guaranteed free transport on match days for ticket holders (only reduced prices).
Skopje - National Arena of Philip II of Macedonia, existing stadium with 32,483 seats. Naming the stadium after Philip II, father of Alexander the Great and born in what is now Greece loses the Macedonians the Greek vote if nothing else. With a third of the seats not covered, the stadium falls well short of the requirements, it also boasts insifficient toilet facilities, insufficient concession stands, too few turnstiles, no evacuation plan. poor disabled facilities, poor hospitality and it needs a better media centre. Public transport is not good, and relies on new motorways from Serbia and Greece, hotel accomodation is poor
Budapest - Puskas Ferenc Stadium. A new stadium (no building as of last May) on the site of the old stadium of the same name (aka Nepstadion). Some aspects of the stadium need to be confirmed to meet UEFA requirements. If the Hungarians can get their fingers out and buld the stadium, then they must be in the running. (The original plan was to build this stadium in time for 2012). The bid generally meets all other requirements
Jerusalem - Teddy Stadium, exisiting stadium to be renovated to seat 32,000. "The Israeli political situation is described in the bid as complex, an assessment confirmed by independent institutions". No S**t Sherlock!! How many games in Israel get moved due to political situation? In many aspects, the bid seems not to have supplied the information. One gets the feeling they have gone through the motions for home consumption and do not expect to be selected.
Rome - Olimpico - existing stadium renovated to provide 68,993. UEFA have managed to find some ways to be critical, but its Rome. Say no more.
Amsterdam, Amsterdam ArenA, 53,000 seats opened in 1996. Surprisingly, UEFA have managed to be critical, saying their should be more disabled spaces and more parking.
Dublin - Dublin Arena (aka Aviva Stadium).51,711 seats, opened in 2010. Again, Parking is commented on. Very little else against them, and UEFA even think the hotel prices are within requirements.
Bucharest - National Arena, 54,851 seats, opened in 2011. The stadium has some problems with respect to parking and hospitality. UEFA have not yet secured as many low price hotel rooms as they may need. The bus service from the airport is not very good, and the new metro line is only "planned for 2020".
St. Petersburg - Zenit Arena - new stadium with 61,251 seats scheduled for use for completion in August 2016 for the 2018 World Cup. This is not the same location as Zenit St Petersburg currently use. The World Bank describes the political situation as "increasingly complex". The only other negative comment is hotel rooms being expensive.
Glasgow - Hampden Park - 51,472 seats. Despite the BBC comments, the bid looks to be a good one. Some questions over hospitality and they have not been clear over commercial matters.
Bilboa - New San Mames Stadium, 53,289 seats. The stadium has similar hospitality problems to Hampden, and also does not meet UEFA'sfull media requirements, (suprising for a stadium that one would expect to bid for European finals). Transport and accomodation are weak, and the fan zones both in Bilbao, and the rest of Spain are poor.
Stockholm - Friends Arena, 50,653 seats. The hotel prices are described as reasonable. Could have fooled me. The worst UEFA have thrown at Stockholm is a need for extra corporate hospitality and the fact the fan zone is in an interesting, non central location.
Cardiff - Millennium Stadium, 74,154 seats since 1999. Still, they can comment on parking, hospitality and hotel rooms.
My conclusion - there are 19 bidding cities, with four surely ruled out by this report, (Minsk, Sofia, Skopje and Jerusalem). If it was up to me, I would rule out St. Petersburg (too soon after the 2018 WC) and choose my 2024 country at the same time. If this was one of the candidate countries, then we could rule them out and cut the numbers down to the correct number. I would think it highly likely that Cardiff, Dublin and Glasgow all won through and that Wembley gets the final, with either Budapest or Copenhagen missing out (or both)
Euro 2020 Evaluation report
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I hope Parken is included.
Only one stadium per country allowed to apply?
Only one stadium per country allowed to apply?
The report appeared in several areas of news media, but only a single quote saying little to back it up. Germany have confirmed an intention to bid for 2024. At the moment, the only other nation expected to bid is Turkey, but it must be questionable if the Turks can stage a 24 team tournament.
As I said in my original post, four cities were surely damned by the report, and these four (Minsk, Skopje, Jerusalem, Sofia) all failed to get through. Both Cardiff and Stockholm must have been unlucky to miss out - and one hopes it they did not fail on alphabetical order, being the last two on the list (by country name).
No team gets automatic qualification for this tournament, but any qualifying host nation is guaranteed at least two home games.
I expect UEFA are trying to pair the countries as best as they can, remembering that in group, there will be teams moving from Country A to B and back again.
My guess is Ireland/Scotland, Netherlands/Belgium, Denmark/Germany, Hungary/Romania, Spain/Italy, Russia/Azerbaijan.
However, this is tempered by the thought that in each group, the group winner may expect to stay in region, and in the last of these section, both countries are staging a quarter final, rather than a second round game.
Some thoughts for the Welsh
1) Although there was a scare story over the Scottish bid last week, the independence debate may have helped the Scots to show they are not England, while to man people outwith the shores, Wales is no more independent than Cornwall.
2) One of the accepted bids is a risk. The stadium in Hungary has not yet started construction. If anything goes wrong in Budapest, then one would think Cardiff could well be first reserve.
No team gets automatic qualification for this tournament, but any qualifying host nation is guaranteed at least two home games.
I expect UEFA are trying to pair the countries as best as they can, remembering that in group, there will be teams moving from Country A to B and back again.
My guess is Ireland/Scotland, Netherlands/Belgium, Denmark/Germany, Hungary/Romania, Spain/Italy, Russia/Azerbaijan.
However, this is tempered by the thought that in each group, the group winner may expect to stay in region, and in the last of these section, both countries are staging a quarter final, rather than a second round game.
Some thoughts for the Welsh
1) Although there was a scare story over the Scottish bid last week, the independence debate may have helped the Scots to show they are not England, while to man people outwith the shores, Wales is no more independent than Cornwall.
2) One of the accepted bids is a risk. The stadium in Hungary has not yet started construction. If anything goes wrong in Budapest, then one would think Cardiff could well be first reserve.