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After speculation over whether or not the Allianz Arena, home of Bayern Munich, will be able to host matches in the “2020ne” version of the European Championships without fans, it seems the Bavarian government and UEFA have come to a compromise position.
In an announcement today, it was confirmed that Munich will be hosting games for this summer’s Euros. They will play host to all of Germany’s group stage games, featuring defending World Cup champions France, defending European champions Portugal, and Hungary. After these, the Allianz Arena will play host to a quarterfinal match of an undetermined team.
More importantly, the matches will have spectators in attendance. The Bavarian and German governments agreed to allow 14,500 fans to be in attendance for all of the matches played during the tournament.
Official: Munich will welcome a minimum of 14,500 spectators at Germany's group stage games against France (June 15), Portugal (June 19) and Hungary (June 23) as well as one quarterfinal. #EURO2020 pic.twitter.com/taZIQOz8Ww
— Bayern & Germany (@iMiaSanMia) April 23, 2021
It’s most likely that decision which helped save Munich in the eyes of UEFA. The announcement to finalize the stadia and locations of the games also came with sad news for fans in Ireland and Basque Country, as Dublin and Bilbao were told they would not host any games. It’s believed that UEFA came to this decision due to the Irish and Basque government’s reluctance to have fans in attendance.
Bayern CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge expressed his joy at the decision and added that he hopes the games will be played with safety in mind:
“I’m delighted that UEFA has confirmed European Championship games will take place in Munich this summer. I would like to thank UEFA and especially president Aleksander Čeferin, as well as Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder, who made an important contribution. We all want the games to take place with spectators in our Allianz Arena. But we have always emphasized that people’s health always has top priority.”
It will remain to be seen if the German government will allow international spectators to travel for these events or if they will be closed off to European citizens only.