5 February 2010 / TODAY’S ZAMAN, İSTANBUL
The Turkish Soccer Federation (TFF) will submit its candidate dossier for hosting the 2016 UEFA European Championship, or Euro 2016, to European soccer’s governing body, UEFA, next week.
The federation said in a statement that State Minister Faruk Nafiz Özak and TFF Chairman Mahmut Özgener would attend a ceremony in the Swiss city of Nyon on Feb. 15 and hand Turkey’s dossier to UEFA officials. The host country will be announced on May 28. Four bids have been received to host the tournament, which will take place in the summer of 2016. After Norway and Sweden withdrew their joint bid in December 2009, Turkey, Italy and France are the remaining candidate countries. Özak announced Turkey’s official candidature logo, eight host cities (Ankara, Antalya, Bursa, Eskişehir, İstanbul, İzmir, Kayseri and Konya) and three backup cities (Adana, Şanlıurfa and Trabzon) for the country’s bid on Dec. 23. Turkey plans to host the tournament in nine stadiums in eight cities, with İstanbul hosting two stadiums.
