FA hoping to have 90,000 capacity crowd at Wembley for Euro final – ramping up from 45,000 amid coronavirus pandemic
THE FA is hoping to have 45,000 fans in for England’s potential last 16 game at Euro 2020.
And Wembley chiefs believe they could welcome a full house of 90,000 under the Arch for the final in July.
Uefa announced the June 29 clash featuring the winners of England’s first round group has been shifted from Dublin to Wembley.
It means Gareth Southgate and his Three Lions could play six of their potential seven games in the tournament at Wembley, with only the quarter-final match outside London, in Rome.
And FA chief executive Mark Bullingham revealed he is aiming to ensure that the group stage capped attendances of 22,500, including for England’s crunch clash with Scotland are at least doubled for the knock-out stage.
Wembley will now stage eight matches, including two last 16 games, both semis and the Final.
Bullingham said: “It is absolutely fantastic for us to stage an extra game and another chance for fans to experience the Euros.
“It's still an incredibly tough route to the final for us.
“But this gives us another potential opportunity for a game at home for the Three Lions which I'd say is brilliant for us as well.
“We are guaranteed 25 per cent of capacity for the whole tournament and our hope and expectation is that we get up to a high number for the big names.
“So if you view the round of 16 games together with the semi final and final, we always had a date at the end of February to tell Uefa what our kind of uplift scenario was for those games.
“We've actually got until June 2 to tell them what our number can be for the round of 16 games semi final and final.
“Our hope is that it will be at least 50 per cent full for those games. Clearly that's not our decision, that's for the authorities to decide.
“We would love the Final to be full, if the authorities were to allow that.
“From our perspective, we think that 50 cent might be more realistic at the moment.
“But if the situation improves and the authorities allow, we would love the final to be full. We want as many fans as possible to be able to experience the Euros.”
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The FA had also proposed Newcastle’s St James Park as a potential venue for the other three Group E games involving Sweden, Poland and Slovakia, due to be played in Dublin.
But Uefa was reluctant to add another host venue at such a late stage so the games were moved to St Petersburg.
With Bilbao also ruled out for failing to meet Uefa’s demands for guarantees that fans would be allowed into the stadium, its games were switched to Seville.
The news comes with England fans who have already bought tickets for the Dublin match told they “will receive priority access on a first-come, first-served basis to future ticket sales windows” for the game.
If the new 45,000 capacity is confirmed, it means all ex-Dublin ticket holders will get seats for the game – which would be against the winners Group F, and Uefa is already to start its ballot of all existing seat-buyers “in the coming days”.
But England fans have been warned they will be unlikely to be able to travel to Rome, should England reach the last eight, or to Copenhagen and St Petersburg on the group runners-up path as a result of Covid border and immigration restrictions.
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