The impact of Italy's UEFA Euro title last Sunday could have a positive effect on the country and its involvement in international competitions, as the Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio (FIGC) has openly named their intention to host either the UEFA Euro that will be played in 2028 or the FIFA World Cup set to be played in 2030.
Speaking after a ceremony where FIGC president Gabriele Gravina congratulated members of the Italian team that won the title on Sunday, Italian football's main man hinted that his country could still bid for any of those competitions to take advantage of the great impulse Italian football could have after their moment of glory in the Euro.
"This win will give us a big momentum to restart social and economic life in Italy. Tbis will give our country great confidence and it can only make us proud. We will evaluate presenting a bid for the UEFA Euro 2028 of to host the 2030 World Cup, the one where the tournament's centennial will be celebrated. But let's play the first of those events and then we can think about what's next," Gravina said.
Gravina went further on to discuss the steps they need to take in order to see this plan come to fruition with so little time left to submit a bid, since the host nation will be known on May 2022.
"We have to improve the state of our stadiums, because if we don't invest in their infrastructure we will never be able to put together a big event. We have to move quickly, because we don't want to go in there saying 'I don't have the stadiums, but if you choose me I will build them'. That's not the image we want to give," Gravina added.
So far, there have been a couple of two-nation bids submitted to host the FIFA World Cup: one featuring England and Ireland, and the other one featuring Spain and Portugal. Given Sunday's riots at Wembley, it seems that the Portugal-Spain option is by far the best, but if things go as planned, Italy could swoop in and take hosting rights.
