UEFA, Saturday confirmed that the EURO 2020 will be held in different cities across the continent. Which effect will the new structure have? Great Dane Football Blog takes a look.

The President of the European Football Association, Michel Platini opened for the idea of a European championship across the continent in the summer. This weekend he confirmed that the EURO 2020 will be as he asked for. The plan is that the matches will be played in 12-13 cities, but this is yet to be confirmed.

The decision has been welcomed by many of the European nations, which can apply to be a host nation from March 2013. One of the main ideas behind the new structure is to help a Europe in financial crisis. Earlier, host nations has been left in dept after the tournament, and this should solve situations alike in the future. This is being backed up by the German sports writer Jens Weinreich in Der Spiegel:

Spreading out a tournament like in the EURO 2020, leaves hope that host countries will come out of the event on a positive note and that less stadia will stand scarcely used after the event, writes Weinreich.

However, the decision has also been met by critic from the fans, looking to spend a large amount of money travelling between the cities to see their country play. Platini has earlier been quoted:

“As you know, there are budget airlines"

However, the President has changed his mind and hopes that a solution will be found before the EURO.

The final exam will be held in 2020 and only then we can know how this will work.

FIFA has accepted the goal-line technology after a series of doubtful situations. The technology has been discussed earlier on this blog but is highly relevant once again.

It has been discussed for a couple of years, but now it is a reality; FIFA has approved the goal-line technology. I have earlier expressed my fear for the future of football, if it got to technical and I am still not convinced this is the right solution to the “ghost-goal” problem. However, the EURO 2012 proved to us that adding an extra pair of eyes on the goal did not help on the problem. It was almost humiliating to see how a referee, which only job was to keep an eye on the goal, did not see whether the ball crossed the line. At the moment, the goal-line technology seems to be the only solution. That said, how often do we see a “ghost-goal”? 1 out of a 100 matches?

My fear for the future of football is not whether or not a ball crossed the line. It is the fear that adding one technology to the game will be followed up by another. Michel Platini said, during a press conference that the goal-line technology could be followed up by a ‘technology for offside decisions as well’. Platini is right; this current technology frenzy does not stop with the goal-line. Sooner or later we will have the offside technology, censors telling us if the player committed a foul or even a technology telling the referee whether or not the wall is in the correct distance from the free kick. As the UEFA-president said:

FIFA has now opened a door for the technology, and thereby for a new future for football. I can only hope that, at some point, this technology adventure will end, instead of making our beloved passion into a videogame. No matter what, I am going to miss the mystique about whether or not the ball crossed the line, but as humans has done for centuries: I’ll adapt to the changes.