James Cox
Dublin has been removed as one of the host cities for the European Championship, with a UEFA member confirming it has been replaced with Russian city St Petersburg.
Zbigniew Boniek, head of the Polish FA and a member of the UEFA executive committee, is part of a meeting this morning which will finalise the host cities for the delayed Euro 2020.
Dublin, Bilbao and Munich were the three host cities granted four days to clarify whether they could meet the minimum requirement of 25 per cent fan capacity.
There are 12 host cities for the tournament.
Of the three mentioned, Munich is understood to be the only one that will retain its fixtures.
Bilbao will be replaced by another Spanish city, Seville, while Dublin is set to be replaced by St Petersburg.
“Seville and St Petersburg – officially,” tweeted Boniek. “There is a bit of work ahead of us…we start over – camp, journey and all the logistics.”
The Aviva Stadium had been due to host group games involving Poland, Slovaki and Sweden along with a last-16 tie but these games have now been moved.
The three group games will now be played in Russia while the last-16 tie will be moved to Wembley, which is also set to host the semi-finals and final of the tournament.
Fans who had purchased tickets for the Dublin games will have until Monday to claim a refund from UEFA.
Speaking yesterday, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said June was “too soon” to have fans in attendance at the Aviva Stadium.
Mr Varadkar told Today FM on Wednesday: “The last I heard was that the organisers (UEFA) were looking at us to commit to have at least 25 per cent of the stadium full.
“We’re cautious about that. We just think June is too soon. I think if they continue to insist on that, it will be hard for that to go ahead which is unfortunate.”
