A formal decision

Croatia not submitting EURO 2020 final bid

25.04.2014.

Photo by: Drago Sopta/HNS

Croatian Football Federation hereby announces that the final bid for the EURO 2020 will not be submitted.

On Friday, Croatian Football Federation confirmed to UEFA that the EURO 2020 final bid will not be submitted.

May 25th was the deadline for submitting the final bids for EURO 2020, to be held in 13 cities across Europe.

This idea has revived the Croatian Football Federation's desire to make Croatia one of the hosts of this football spectacle. From the beginning, CFF has met all the deadlines, with Zagreb and Split being the possible host cities. Both cities have been forwarded the necessary UEFA documents in a timely manner.

Despite the support of both City of Zagreb and City of Split, which have demonstrated the desire and the will to fulfill the required criteria - and CFF would like to thank them for that - CFF could not fulfill the basic legal and UEFA requirement, obtaining the approval and the guarantees of the Croatian government.

Regretfully, the Croatian government did not respond to the CFF letter of intent considering the EURO 2020 final bid. This government's decision means that the legal prerequisite for the candidacy cannot be fulfilled, since the Croatian Sports Act requires the government's approval before hosting such an event. Moreover, this was the basic UEFA requirement for submitting the bid.

Therefore, CFF withdraws from the EURO 2020 bidding process, and does so regretfully, since it still believes that hosting such an event would be a fantastic opportunity to promote Croatia and the host city, to further develop sports culture and infrastructure, and give an economic boost to the entire country.

Regardless, CFF is looking forward to the tournament that will undoubtedly be the "EURO for Europe" and deeply believes that the Croatian national football team will be one of the participants of this festival of football.

Croatian Football Federation's letter to UEFA president Michel Platini:

Dear Mr. President,

I would like to inform you that the Croatian Football Federation decided not to submit a final bid dossier for organizing EURO 2020.

We were very excited with the possibility of hosting EURO 2020 as a part of UEFA’s "EURO for Europe" project but we have not been able to gain necessary support from Croatian government.

The Croatian Sports Act stipulates that European and World championships must be organized with a written approval given by the Croatian government, which is also an UEFA requirement.

Unfortunately, due to a challenging economic situation in the country and despite the support from both City of Zagreb and City of Split which would have been excellent host cities, the Government of Croatia did not respond to the official HNS letter of intent, thereby providing us with no alternative but to formally withdraw our candidacy.

While we are regretful of not having a chance to host such a magnificent event, we wish good luck to all candidates and we have no doubt that the final tournament will be a real festival of football.

UEFA and you personally deserve plaudits for this revolutionary idea, which will make 13 countries proud hosts of the EURO. Even though Croatia will not be one of them, we strongly believe that we will be one of the participants at the Final tournament.

With best regards,

Sincerely yours,

Davor Šuker
President

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