The host nation to organize 2016 European Championship (EURO 2016) will be announced tomorrow with a ceremony in Switzerland for which Turkey competes against the other candidates Italy and France. UEFA Executive Committee will decide on the host country in a meeting that will be held after the 30 minute final presentations delivered by each candidate at the Espace Hippomène, Geneva.
Turkey will be the first to deliver its final presentation with the moderation of Defne Samyeli. It is stated that the presentation will mainly focus on not being appointed as the host of this organization although 3 prior applications, prior championships hosted by competing candidates, 100% increase in Turkish tourism potential in the past 6-7 years and the investments made in the field of transportation infrastructure. Italy and France will continue with their final presentations after Turkey respectively. At 12.00 UEFA Executive Committee will meet for deliberations and voting will take place within this process.
PLATINI, ERZIK AND ABETE WILL NOT VOTE
In accordance with the UEFA European Football Championship bid regulations, UEFA president Michel Platini (France), UEFA first vice-president Şenes Erzik (Turkey) and UEFA Executive Committee member Giancarlo Abete (Italy) will not be entitled to participate in the deliberation and voting process since their countries are candidates for this event. 13 Executive Commitee members that are entitled to deliberate and vote are as follows:
Geoffrey Thompson (England)- will be the chair of the meeting, Angel Maria Villar Llona (Spain), Marios N. Lefkaritis (Cyprus), Dr. Joseph Mifsud (Malta), Allan Hansen (Denmark), Frantisek Laurinec (Slovakia), Avraham Luzon (Israel), Dr. Gilberto Madail (Portugal), Mircea Sandu (Romania), Grigoriy Surkis (Ukraine), Michael van Praag (Netherlands), Liutauras Varanavicius (Lithuania), Dr. Theo Zwanziger (Germany).
VOTING PROCEDURE
Since there will be more than three bidders taking part in this ballot, each member of UEFA’s Executive Committee entitled to take part in the voting procedure shall rank the bidders in order of strictly increasing preference. Points shall be allocated based on their position on each ballot, starting with 1 point for the least preferred bidder and 2 points for the second. The most preferred bidder will be attributed a number of points equal to the number of bidders (3) plus 2, that calculates to 5 points. After the first round of voting, the bidder with the lowest number of points will be excluded from the next ballot. The new ballot will take place among the two remaining bidding countries. In the case of two countries having the lowest equal points, an intermediate ballot will take place between these two to determine the country that will be excluded. After the deliberation and voting process, the winning country will be announced live through internet and via TV channels at 13:00 (CET). The host of UEFA EURO 2016 will be announced at 13.00 by the UEFA president Michel Platini. Following the announcement, the winning country and UEFA officials will together hold a press conference.
TURKEY’S 3rd CANDIDACY
3 time candidate to host the European Championship, Turkey wants to have a happy ending tomorrow at the ceremony where the host nation of the EURO 2016 will be announced. Prior two Turkish bids to host the organisation have not been successful. Turkey and Greece presented a joint bid for EURO 2008 and Turkey has been an individual bidder since then for the EURO’s 2012 and 2016.
TURKEY LOST EURO 2008 AT THE FINAL ROUND
Turkey and Greece presented a joint bid to host EURO 2008 together. Along with Turkey-Greece bid, Austria-Switzerland, Croatia-Bosnia Herzegovina, Scotland-Republic of Ireland, and a 4-way Nordic bid from Norway/Sweden/Denmark/Finland were among the joint bidders for EURO 2008, for which only Russia and Hungary bid individually. Following the introduction made by all 7 candidates Russia, Hungary and Croatia-Bosnia Herzegovina joint bid were not able to pass the elimination and these countries were not included in the first round. In the first round of voting, the alliance of Nordic countries (Norway/Sweden/Denmark/Finland) and Scotland-Republic of Ireland joint bid were eliminated. Turkey-Greece and Austria-Switzerland bids were recommended before the final vote. EURO 2008 was awarded to Austria-Switzerland in the final round.
TURKEY WENT WITH INDIVIDUAL BID FOR EURO 2012
Turkey was an individual bidder for the 2012 European Championship. The organization of EURO 2012 was also contested by Croatia-Hungary joint bid, Greece, Italy and Poland-Ukraine joint bid. Turkey was eliminated at the pre-selection stage together with Greece and Poland-Ukraine joint bid was awarded as the host of EURO 2012.
TURKEY IS COMPETING WITH TWO OTHER CANDIDATES FOR EURO 2016
Turkey started the bid process for UEFA EURO 2016 European Football Championship Turkey in December 2008. Four applications representing five countries were made to host EURO 2016, the first European Championship where 24 teams will contest. Turkish Football Federation officially applied in February 2009. Italy, France, and Turkey had single bids whereas Norway and Sweden announced a joint bid to stage the tournament. Norway and Sweden eventually withdrew their bid in December 2009 due to lack of political support in both countries where the relevant governments refused to support the organization financially. Turkey competes against the other candidates Italy and France at tomorrow’s UEFA Executive Committee meeting.
FRANCE AND ITALY ORGANIZED THE CHAMPIONSHIP TWICE BEFORE
Candidate countries France and Italy both have hosted the tournament, which has been organized 13 times until now, twice in previous years. If awarded tomorrow with the votes of UEFA Executive Committee, it will be the first time for Turkey to stage the championship.
Held every four years since 1960, only 3 countries have hosted the UEFA European Football Championship twice. France (1960 and 1984), Italy (1968 and 1980) and Belgium (1972 and 2000) were the countries to host the championship more than once. Belgium however organized the tournament in 2000 together with Netherlands.
EURO 2012 will be hosted jointly by Poland and Ukraine. In the history of the championship Netherlands and Belgium were the organizers in year 2000 and Austria-Switzerland jointly hosted EURO 2008.
Previous host countries are as follows:
Year Host Country
---- --------------
1960 France
1964 Spain
1968 Italy
1972 Belgium
1976 Yugoslavia
1980 Italy
1984 France
1988 West Germany
1992 Sweden
1996 England
2000 Netherlands-Belgium
2004 Portugal
2008 Austria-Switzerland
