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Johnson backs UK bid for 2030 World Cup, offers stadiums for Euro 2020

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it is the "right time" for the United Kingdom and Ireland to launch a bid to host the 2030 football World Cup, while he added the country would also be willing to host extra Euro 2020 matches this year if required.

"We are very keen to bring football home in 2030. I do think it's the right place. It will be an absolutely wonderful thing for the country," Johnson said in an interview with The Sun.

England's FA joined its counterparts in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Ireland in welcoming the government's financial pledge to kick-start a potential 2030 World Cup bid.

"We will continue to undertake feasibility work to assess the viability of a bid before Fifa formally open the process in 2022," the FAs said in a joint statement.

Johnson also left the door open to the UK hosting additional Euro 2020 games, after the government last week unveiled plans to end all restrictions on social contact in England by June 21.

Today marks 100 days before the scheduled start of Euro 2020, which was delayed by a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and is set to take place across 12 different host cities from June 11-July 11.

Those cities include Glasgow, which will host three group games and a last-16 tie, and London, where three group games, one last-16 match plus the semi-finals and final will be staged at Wembley Stadium.

The other host cities are Dublin, Bilbao, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Munich, Rome, St Petersburg, Bucharest, Budapest and Baku.

"If they want any other matches that they want hosted, we're certainly on for that but, at the moment, that's where we are with Uefa," Johnson said.

The decision to stage the competition for the first time across the continent was a logistical challenge even before international travel was restricted by the spread of the coronavirus.

Elite-level football has managed to keep going thanks to rigorous testing protocols but has been played in soulless, empty stadiums with supporters still shut out in most of the countries due to host matches.

However, European football's governing body has given all host cities until early next month to say if they will be in a position to accommodate spectators inside stadiums and at what percentage of capacity. - REUTERS, AFP

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