Soccer-Euro 2020 shows green credentials with no white elephants - UEFA marketing director

Organising Euro 2020 across 12 countries will help avoid leaving abandoned stadiums after the tournament is done and dusted, UEFA marketing director Guy-Laurent Epstein said on Friday.

The June 12-July 12 tournament marks the 60th anniversary of the competition and Epstein told reporters at Global Sports Week in Paris that UEFA has "no plan to do (this format across multiple countries) again at this stage". While he acknowledged that fans would travel more and therefore have a greater carbon footprint, he noted that several teams would keep the same base for the whole group stage.

"The idea was to celebrate the 60 years of the European championship and to bring Euro to places who could not host Euro in isolation and to avoid having to build white elephants as had happened in Brazil (after the 2014 World Cup) for example," Epstein explained. "We're investing a lot in sustainability, we are conscious of that and we're working on it."