Turkey to bid to host Euro 2024
February 15, 2017
The president of the Turkish Football Federation, Yildirim Demiroren (pictured above, left), made the widely expected pitch official at a press conference at the organization's headquarters in Istanbul on Wednesday.
"As Allah desires, we will submit Turkey's candidacy on March 2," Demiroren said. The deadline for official bids to be submitted is March 3.
Demiroren added that he believed that Turkey's time had come after its unsuccessful bids to host the 2008, 2012 and 2016 tournaments.
"On this occasion we believe both as a management board and a country that we deserve to get it," he said. "Turkey is the only example of a country in Europe or even the world which has made as many as 32 stadium investments in the last few years."
Sports Minster Akif Cagatay Kilic (above, right) told reporters that Turkey's bid had the full support of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the government of Prime Minister Binali Yildirim.
The only other country to announce its intention to bid to host Euro 2024 is Germany, with the executive board of the German football association (DFB) having voted on January 20 to do so. The DFB is currently accepting applications from cities that want to host European championship matches in 2024.
Football's European governing body, UEFA, is to announce all of the 2024 bidders on March 10 and its decision on which country will host Euro 2026 in September 2018.
The next European championship is to be held in 13 cities in 13 different countries, including Munich.
pfd/hf (dpa, SID)