Why is European Championship held in 2021 called Euro 2020 and not Euro 2021?

The Union of European Football Association (UEFA) organizes the quadrennial international men’s football championship of Europe. It is known as UEFA European Football Championship or UEFA European Championship, or UEFA Euro or Euro. The complete name of this championship includes the name of the current year. This year, the name is decided to be Euro 2020 instead of Euro 2021.

Why Euro 2020 instead of Euro 2021, even when it is held in 2021?

The UEFA European Football Championship 2020 was supposed to be held from 12^th June 2020 to 12^th July 2020. However, it was postponed due to the ongoing covid-19 pandemic.

To honor 60-year old tradition:

This tournament is now held from 11^th June 2021 to 11^th July 2021 and retains the name Euro 2020 to honor the 60^th birthday of the UEFA European Championship. Thus, as per the organizers’ statement, “to keep the vision of the competition,” Euro 2020 is not renamed to Euro 2021. This tournament started in 1960, and 2020 marks the 60^th birthday of the Championship.

To eliminate additional merchandise costs:

Further, some other valid reasons include a multitude of Euro 2020 merchandising, prepared well before the tournament. The UEFA prepares this merchandise long before the time when the deadly covid-19 pandemic hit European nations. Thus, to save the extra costs on preparing entire new merchandise with Euro 2021, the organizers decided to go for Euro 2020 only. Thus, it helps avert the disaster of wasting millions of Euro 2020 merchandise and helps the organizers save their time and money.

What’s new in Euro 2020?

The video assistant referee (VAR) is making a debut in Euro 2020 championship. It was originally played in 13 countries, but then cut short to 11 countries only. Brussels and Dublin are now not hosting the championship. This year, Spain changed its host city from Bilbao to Seville.

Special Rules in Euro 2020

Due to the ongoing covid-19 pandemic, the UEFA Executive Committee added a list of special rules for Euro 2020 that includes:

• The match would go ahead as scheduled with at least 13 members even if the group of players was kept in self-isolation or mandatory quarantine due to positive covid-19 test reports.
• The match can be postponed up to the next 48 hours by the UEFA administration in case the minimum number of team members is not available.
• The UEFA Control, Ethics, and Disciplinary Body will decide the matter in case the match can’t be rescheduled.
• The UEFA can exceptionally appoint a match official of the same nationality as one of the teams or not on the FIFA list in case the appointed match referee testes positive for the covid-19.

Euro 2020 Host Cities

The A, B, C, D, E, F group teams will battle out in the 11 host cities in Euro 2020. These cities for Euro 2020 championship are London, Seville, Glasgow, Copenhagen, Budapest, Amsterdam, Bucharest, Rome, Munich, Baku, and Saint Petersburg.