France will host UEFA EURO 2016, the first UEFA European Football Championship final round to feature 24 teams.
The decision was announced by UEFA president Michel Platini at the Espace Hippomène in Geneva, Switzerland on Friday 28 May 2010. The UEFA Executive Committee reached its verdict by a majority of one from the 13 votes cast after examining the three bids – Italy, France and Turkey – on the final shortlist to stage the tournament.
The French Football Federation bid included 12 stadiums, of which seven would require major renovations and four would be new, in 11 cities: Bordeaux, Lens, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Nancy, Nice, Paris (Stade de France and Parc des Princes), Saint-Etienne, Strasbourg and Toulouse.
France has previously hosted the FIFA World Cup in 1938 and 1998, winning the latter competition, having also triumphed on home soil at EURO '84. Les Bleus added a second European crown in the Low Countries in 2000, but were beaten in the final of the 2006 World Cup by Italy.
The final tournament of UEFA EURO 2016 will be the first to feature 24 teams following a decision by UEFA's Executive Committee in September 2008. This section will cover the various activities and developments relating to UEFA EURO 2016.
| UEFA EURO 2016 bidding timetable | | Date | Event | 15 February
| Presentation of bids by candidate host nations (France, Italy, Turkey) | From 19 March
| UEFA sent list of open points to bidders | | Early April | Technical workshops in candidate host nations and UEFA official visits to assess political support | | By 29 April | Bidders received their respective section of qualititive evaluation report | 6 May
| Bidders met UEFA National Team Competitions Committee representatives and UEFA | 14 May
| Final evaluation report sent to bidders, UEFA Executive Committee and UEFA National Team Competitions Committee representatives; report published on UEFA.com | 26 May
| UEFA National Team Competitions Committee met to finalise technical recommendations to UEFA Executive Committee | 27 May
| UEFA National Team Competitions Committee delegates presented key aspects of bid and technical evaluations to UEFA Executive Committee | | 28 May, 10.00CET | Final bid presentations by the three candidates. Each bidder had 30 minutes and, in accordance with a draw, Turkey took the stage first, followed by Italy and then France | 28 May, 12.00CET
| UEFA Executive Commitee met to deliberate and vote. In accordance with the regulations, UEFA president Michel Platini (France), UEFA Executive Committee first vice-president Şenes Erzik (Turkey) and UEFA Executive Committee member Giancarlo Abete (Italy) could not take part in the discussions and were not entitled to vote | | 28 May, 13.00CET | After Italy were eliminated in the first round of voting, France were announced as host nation having collected seven votes to Turkey's six in Geneva |
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