UEFA President Michel Platini Pushes His Pan-European Euro 2020 Plan

German UEFA exec committee member Theo Zwanziger said that "UEFA is going ahead with a proposal for a Euro 2020 tournament hosted by half a dozen countries and not the usual one or two," according to Karolos Grohmann of REUTERS. Zwanziger, who was formerly head of the German Football Federation (DFB), said that "the plan, still to be ratified by the UEFA exec committee, envisaged 12 countries hosting the expanded tournament, which will feature 24 teams, up from the current 16." Zwanziger said that "the plan foresees 12 countries hosting matches, with the countries chosen as seeded nations based on their UEFA ranking at the time, and whether they have qualified for the competition." The BILD newspaper reported that "if Germany qualified for the tournament they would play their group games at Berlin's Olympic stadium." UEFA President Michel Platini's idea "will be discussed by the exec board in December, with a decision made early next year" (REUTERS, 11/13).

TERM LIMITS: The AP reported a FIFA working group began talks that "could result in age and term limits" for world football leaders and change how World Cup hosts are chosen. FIFA said that a 10-point proposal "will be sent to national federations by the panel of chief execs and legal directors from FIFA and its six continental confederations." The FIFA Congress of 209 members "is scheduled to meet in May and vote on ongoing reforms promised by President Sepp Blatter after a series of bribery and bidding scandals." Proposals under discussion "include an age limit of 72 for FIFA election candidates and a two-term, eight-year limit for the president." All of FIFA's members likely "will be asked to choose future World Cup hosts instead of the FIFA exec committee" (AP, 11/12).