Wembley, Aston Villa, Everton, West Ham, Spurs, Man City, Man United, Newcastle, Sunderland. Villa Park? Not a bad stadium, by any stretch, but there's better. eg Wolves for starters. King Prawn at Leicester? Playing devils here, if the new White Hart Lane is on the list Arse won't be happy!! Bramley Dock over Anfield!!!
They can’t use Anfield. It doesn’t meet the pitch requirements for European tournaments as it is only 101 metres instead of the required 105 metres and there is no way of lengthening it.
Hillsborough is less than Villa Park, and, according to a Wednesday fan I know, requires quite a bit of updating. If Leicester continue to perform poorly there is no guarantee it will be any bigger let alone much bigger by 2028.
Leicester have just got planning permission for their expansion, but there's no firm completion date yet and Hillsborough is smaller than the other grounds selected (though not by much).
Slightly off topic, but I recall an article (cannot recall where) that said most English / British stadia fall short of World Cup requirements because of a lack of infrastructure surrounding the stadia, such as car parking, walkways etc. Maybe a legacy of our historic stadia build amongst urban housing etc. Thinking of Anfield in particular. Not sure how far that is taken into consideration with the euros, but probably a similar issue. Maybe this explains the choice of stadia here. Personally I would have preferred some wider distribution of stadia to places like Bristol, Hull, Sheffield, Plymouth etc, with some investment to bring them up to standard. I know this may be seen as giving an advantage to teams, but it’s building the future of the game in the county and creating a legacy.
On Villa Park. Despite the nice view of VP from the motorway going across Birmingham and the park land on one side, I've always felt a little cagey about going there. Not a nice area in general and that stand where away fans are housed is not massive. Wolves is better, and the railway station is about 300 yards away. But I get the capacity issue.
Yes I think they prefer out of town locations . I was at the Alianz last week and there is absolutely nothing there . The stadium itself is great but bang in the middle of industrial land .
Infrastructure does play a part. No car park at Anfield for example. Also there are requirements regarding not only how fast you can clear the stadium but the surrounding area. Someone said Stamford Bridge would fail on that one. But Anfield would not be considered even if they met all the other requirements as the pitch is 4 metres short of the minimum and cannot be lengthened.
Madrid, Barcelona, various Russian Stadiums, French and Italian ones are more in the centre of cities than many of ours but have all hosted games in this tournament
