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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Sport
John Cross

UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin confirms Euro 2021 plan and hopes for fans' return

UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has pledged his full “commitment” to the Euros going ahead in the current format of 12 cities.

There has been growing doubts about the safety of the tournament being staged across the whole of Europe because of the pandemic.

UEFA themselves have even been looking at different options for the Euros.

They pondered whether they should look at scaling it back, with plans for reduced or no crowds having already postponed it from last year.

But UEFA chiefs held a crunch meeting on Wednesday and they have pledged to go ahead as planned.

That includes Group matches and the semi finals and final being played at Wembley.

UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin (UEFA/AFP via Getty Images)

UEFA President Čeferin said: “UEFA is committed to holding EURO 2020 in the 12 cities originally planned.

"The EURO is the flagship competition for national team football in Europe and is a vital source of funding for grassroots and wider football development.

“I am optimistic that things are highly likely to be very different with regard to the virus as we move closer to the tournament and it is important that we give the host cities and governments as much time as we can to formulate an accurate picture of what will be possible come June and July.

“Fans are such a big part of what makes football special and that is true of the EURO as much as it is of any game.

"We must allow ourselves the maximum space to allow their return to the stadiums.”

UEFA did acknowledge there might have to be “flexibility” around arrangements for the tournament while further talks about crowd levels will be held in April.

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