Zurich [Switzerland], October 12 (ANI): European football body UEFA on Tuesday announced that its member associations interested in hosting UEFA EURO 2028 have until March 2022 to declare their interest, with the appointment of the hosts set to take place in September 2023.

UEFA EURO 2028 is set to take place over 51 matches and feature 24 teams, as has been the case for the previous two tournaments. Joint bids are permitted, provided that the bidding countries are geographically compact.

"In order to ensure compatibility with the competition's sporting and commercial format, the automatic qualification of the host team(s) shall be guaranteed only for a single host or a maximum of two joint host associations, as always implemented in the past," UEFA said in an official statement.

Interested parties will need to provide 10 stadiums, with the following capacities: Minimum of 1 stadium with at least 60,000 net seating capacity Minimum of 1 stadium, preferably 2 stadiums, with at least 50,000 net seating capacity Minimum of 4 stadiums with at least 40,000 net seating capacity Minimum of 3 stadiums with at least 30,000 net seating capacityIn the case of more than two joint host associations, the automatic qualification of all the host teams cannot be guaranteed and shall be subject to a decision to be made in conjunction with decisions concerning the qualifying competition.

As the competition regulations have not yet been issued, information regarding dates, the number of participating teams, and the number of matches are provisional and may therefore change. (ANI)