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Map of the Week: A dozen destinations for Euro 2020

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Translation by:

Melisa Laura Díaz

LifestyleMapping Out Europe

The French may be licking their wounds after their defeat at the hands of the Portuguese in the Euro 2016 final, but thoughts are already turning to the next championship. This time there’s a twist: Euro 2020 won’t have one single host country, but 12.

Euro 2016 has finished, and the Eiffel Tower is emptier than ever. Despite mixed feelings as to the outcome, football fans across Europe are already dreaming of the rematch. In four years’ time, the European Football Championship will play out across the whole of Europe, from London to Saint Petersburg via Bilbao: quite the challenge, considering the huge distance between some of the cities. A new challenge for the Old Continent?

After the group stages, the final 16 will play in stadiums as far afield as Brussels, Copenhagen, Budapest, Amsterdam, Dublin, Bucharest, Glasgow and Bilbao. The quarterfinals will kick off in Baku, Munich, Rome and St Petersburg while the semis and the final will take place in London’s Wembley Stadium.

This is great news for the host countries, since sharing the games means sharing the costs and gives greater visibility to cities that might not be able to afford to host a whole championship. However, some fans are already less than pleased at the thought of having to travel so many miles to follow the competition. There’s also complaints that dispersed hosting could fail to recreate this year’s atmosphere. We see it as a chance to soak up an array of different European cultures – and maybe collect a few postcards on the way.

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This article is part of our Map of the Week series: charting the stats that matter to Europe, one map at a time.

Story by

Ana Valiente

Spanish freelance journalist based in Madrid. Currently exploring the boundless world of documentary filmmaking.

Translated from Europa a la carta: ¿pensando ya en 2020?