UEFA specialists will assess the readiness of St. Petersburg for Euro Cup matches subsequent week – sport

MOSCOW, February 4th. / TASS /. Another visit by a delegation of UEFA experts assessing Russia’s St. Petersburg’s preparations for hosting the 2020 Euro Cup matches this summer is scheduled for February 11-12, the press service of the local organizing committee ( LOC) Russia 2020 announced on Thursday.

According to the press service, this is the sixth mission visit by UEFA experts who will assess the readiness of the football stadium and the second largest city in Russia, St. Petersburg, to organize matches of the major European football championship.

A delegation of UEFA experts visited St. Petersburg on February 4, 2020 and this visit was considered the last before the tournament, which was later postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

On March 17, 2020, UEFA announced the decision to postpone the 2020 UEFA Euro Cup by exactly one year in order to prevent the continued global spread of the novel coronavirus. The championship was postponed between June 11th and July 11th, 2021. Russia’s second largest city, St. Petersburg, is one of the twelve cities in Europe that will host the European Championship games.

At the UEFA Executive Committee meeting on December 6, 2012 in Lausanne, Switzerland, it was decided that the 2020 Euro Cup, which will celebrate its 60th anniversary in 2020, will be held in different European countries instead of one or two host countries.

The 2020 Euro Cup matches were to be played in stadiums in 12 different cities in Europe, namely London (England), Munich (Germany), Rome (Italy), Baku (Azerbaijan), Saint Petersburg (Russia) and Bucharest (Romania) , Amsterdam (Netherlands), Dublin (Ireland), Bilbao (Spain), Budapest (Hungary), Glasgow (Scotland) and Copenhagen (Denmark).

Saint Petersburg was given the right to host three group stage matches and one of the quarter-finals of the 2020 UEFA Euro Cup. The newly built football arena in St. Petersburg hosted the opening and final matches of the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup and was one of 12 stadiums across the country to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

The stadium, with a capacity of over 62,300 seats, was built in 2007 in the western part of the Krestovsky Island in St. Petersburg and opened in early 2017. It serves as the home stadium for the Zenit St. Petersburg football club.

In August 2019, the European Football Association announced the decision to choose St. Petersburg, Russia, as the venue for the 2021 Champions final.