Prague, April 23 (IANS) After the Prague City Hall refused to guarantee the organisation of Euro 2020, the Czech football association (FACR) decided to give up its candidacy for co-hosting the UEFA European Championship.
As the Prague municipality fears that it would have to cover the costs for organisation of the tournament in case of any problems, it did not sign the guarantee agreement with the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and the FACR, reports Xinhua.
Prague councillor Lukas Manhart said the project has not been prepared well and nobody held official talks about it with the city representatives in the past three months. This view, however, was refuted by FACR.
"FACR has done its utmost to provide all necessary documents and financial guarantees related to the bid that could have been successful," it said.
"The project has been complete and it has not involved any pledge to provide financial guarantees for the reconstruction of the stadium on the part of the state or the City Hall. The last thing necessary for the candidacy was just the host city agreement," said FACR chairman Miroslav Pelta, adding that the nomination will no longer be pursued.
The Czech government refused to provide a three billion crown state guarantee for building a new stadium in Prague-Strahov in March. Pelta then proposed to hold the championship at Slavia Praha club's home - the Eden Stadium.
But the stadium would have to be reconstructed to meet UEFA's capacity requirement of 35,000 seats and the costs of such reconstruction were estimated at one billion crowns.
The Euro 2020 will be played in 13 cities, each from a different UEFA member. The deadline for lodging the applications to the UEFA is April 25.
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