UEFA & European Football - Wembley To Host Euro 2020 Final

Wembley will host the final and semi-finals of Euro 2020. Inset FA Chairman Greg Dyke was delighted with Wembley's successful bid. (Photo: Press Association)

England has won the right to host the final and semi-finals of Euro 2020.

London's Wembley Stadium will stage the climax of the European Championship, the first time a major football tournament has been held in England since Euro 96.

UEFA's executive committee awarded the final to Wembley ahead of Munich's Allianz Arena at a meeting in Geneva.

UEFA also announced that Scotland and Ireland will host matches, but there was bitter disappointment for Wales who missed out in their bid for games at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium.

UEFA is staging the tournament in 13 cities across Europe to mark the 60th anniversary of the first European Championships.

Glasgow's Hampden Park and Dublin's Aviva Stadium will both hold three group games and a last-16 game.

The quarter-finals and three group matches will be held in Munich, Baku, Rome and St Petersburg. The other host cities, which will hold three group games and a last-16 game, are Copenhagen, Bucharest, Amsterdam, Bilbao, Budapest and Brussels.

Germany withdrew Munich's bid just before the vote leaving the field clear for London, UEFA has revealed, and Wembley's selection for the final was made by acclamation.

Football Association Chairman Greg Dyke said: "We are delighted - it's nice to win one! Wembley is a great stadium and we are delighted to be holding the finals of this tournament.

"Wembley has been completely rebuilt since 1996 and is it a wonderful stadium."

Dyke also praised UEFA for the idea of hosting the tournament across 13 cities in Europe.

He added: "It struck me what a good idea this is - look at all these capital cities hosting."

Scottish FA chief executive Stewart Regan believes the backing of Sir Alex Ferguson and the success of the Commonwealth Games had been key in their successful bid.

Regan told Press Association Sport: "Everyone saw what Glasgow was capable of with the Commonwealth Games, and that really put Glasgow on the map. It was a huge factor and we used that in our film.

"Sir Alex Ferguson came in last week with a video in support of our bid and spoke passionately about it, and I am sure that must have helped.

"We knew we had a strong bid. We focused on the fact this is the 60th anniversary and we focused on the history and heritage of football. We knew Michel Platini was a football man and that's what we played strongest on and that's why we used Alex Ferguson.

"It was football that has won the day. This is a tournament about 60 years of European football, we have had some of the most famous matches in European football at Hampden Park and we played heavily on that in our video and in our submission."

UEFA's executive members voted by ranking the bids in order of preference and the result revealed that Cardiff lost out to Glasgow by a single point, with the Scottish bid getting 22 ranking points and the Welsh 21.

Football Association of Wales chief executive Jonathan Ford said: "We are bitterly disappointed but on the technical side we could not have put in a better bid."

Wales are now expected to target hosting a Champions League final at the Millennium Stadium before 2020.

Ford added: "We have always talked to UEFA about other events and certainly I would hope with so many cities being used in 2016, 2018 and 2020 there will be other cities chosen to stage major events and that Wales will have one of those."