Azernews.Az

By Nazrin Gadimova

UEFA President Michel Platini is due to visit Azerbaijan on September 21.

During the visit the UEFA head will attend the groundbreaking ceremony of a training base for national teams in a football center in the Mardakan district of Baku and hold a number of meetings, the Association of Football Federations of Azerbaijan (AFFA) said on September 18.

Construction of a training base under an AFFA project is financially supported by the UEFA.

The list of cities bidding to host Euro 2020 matches will be approved by the UEFA Executive Committee at a meeting in Dubrovnik, Croatia on September 20. For this purpose, AFFA has nominated Baku for hosting Euro 2020.

Apart from Baku such cities as Kiev and Donetsk, Lisbon, Porto, London, Glasgow, Cardiff, Dublin, Amsterdam, Basel, Brussels, Prague, Budapest, Belgrade, Sofia, Bilbao, Lyon, Moscow and St. Petersburg, and Istanbul will contest the right to host Euro 2020.

Euro 2020 will be held in 13 cities. The final and both semi-finals will be held in one of the cities, while the rest of them will host the group stage matches, the 1/8 and 1/4 finals.

Michel Platini, a French football player, coach and sports functionary, is a European champion in 1984 as well as the best French football player of the 20th century according to France Football, a French magazine. He is the only football player who was awarded the "Golden Ball" for three consecutive years (in 1983, 1984 and 1985).

AFFA is the organization which oversees football in Azerbaijan and has been organizing national championships, the national team games, etc. It also provides support, development and promotion of football in general.