Eighteen years after the World Cup in 1998 and thirty-two years after Euro 1984, France has been designated Friday in Geneva by the UEFA Executive Comittee, to host the Euro 2016. The French bid beat its Turkish and Italian rivals. It is both a great reward, and a great promise for the future of French football.
Michel Platini remained speechless when announcing that France would organize the Euro 2016. Indeed, the French President of UEFA had a hard time pronouncing the name of his country, probably remembering that he was himself lifting the trophy as captain the last time the Euro had been organized in France in 1984.
Yet, this result is not surprising. We all knew that the French bid was well placed, with a big issue in terms of capacity and infrastructure, communication and transportation. After the uncertainties related to the readiness of Ukraine for the 2012 edition co-hosted with Poland, UEFA wanted to play safety for the first Euro with 24 teams participating.
This has however been very tight since the French case has forestalled the Turkish candidacy with only one voice on the 13 expressed by members of the executive committee of UEFA. Needless to recall that the French case had also a weakness that will need to be changed: the antiquated stadium. Eight stadiums are to be renovated and 4 will be built from scratch, for a total investment of 1 billion 700 million euros. A lot of work for France, which has six years to prepare.
It is always difficult to estimate the financial impact of such an event but the Euro should at least be able to generate 15,000 jobs, according to the FFF, and 4000 other sustainable position to ensure the functioning of the new stadiums.