Despite interest from Turkey, a joint bid from Scotland, the Republic of Ireland and Wales and a proposal from Georgia and Azerbaijan, UEFA announced on 6 December 2012 that it had made the unprecedented decision to host the tournament in multiple cities across Europe.
[6][10] The Azerbaijani-Georgian coalition was doubted by some due to Azerbaijan's preference for a successful Baku bid for the 2020 Summer Olympics.
On 6 December 2012, UEFA announced that the 2020 championships would be held in multiple cities all over Europe to mark 60 years of the tournament's existence.
[24] On 20 September, UEFA confirmed expressions of interest from 32 football associations to act as host cities.
The Finnish Football Association withdrew its bid on 4 March 2014 as redevelopments to its chosen venue, the Helsinki Olympic Stadium, will leave it below the standards required to host matches at the tournament.
[58] The Czech Football Association also withdrew its candidacy in March 2014 citing that the government was not ready to provide the guarantees for building a new stadium.
[59] The Italian Football Federation withdrew Milan's San Siro Stadium after selecting Rome's Stadio Olimpico as the country's sole venue to host Euro 2020 matches.
[72][73] Before the voting on 19 September 2014, UEFA judged that the candidatures of Belarus (Minsk), Bulgaria (Sofia), Macedonia (Skopje) and Israel (Jerusalem) did not fulfill the bid requirements, so they did not participate at all in the selection phases.
[76] The announcement ceremony of the selected venues took place at the Espace Hippomène in Geneva on 19 September 2014, 13:00 CEST, right after the voting in the morning.
The six geographical zones were: Prior to the vote, the venues of Belarus (Minsk), Bulgaria (Sofia), Macedonia (Skopje), and Israel (Jerusalem) were determined to have failed bid requirements, and thus were not involved in the final two phases.
However, the UEFA Executive Committee removed Brussels as a host city on 7 December 2017 due to delays with the building of the Eurostadium.
[69][68][70][71] On 23 April 2021, UEFA announced that due to a lack of guarantees regarding spectators caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Dublin was removed as a tournament host (with their matches reallocated to Saint Petersburg for the group stage and London for the round of 16).
Similarly, UEFA reassigned the four matches in Spain elsewhere in the country, with La Cartuja in Seville replacing Bilbao.