Romanian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Greek governments sign Memorandum of Understanding for joint candidacy at EURO2028,WC2030

The Governments of Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece signed on Saturday in Thessaloniki a Memorandum of Understanding for the establishment of an Initial Organising Committee in view of the joint candidacy for hosting the 2028 UEFA European Football Championship and 2030 FIFA World Cup, according to a release sent to AGERPRES.

The Committee will be made up of four representatives of each country: the Sports Minister, a governmental official and two representatives of the football federations. The Committee's Presidency will ensures by rotation, on a 6-month mandate and the meetings will be periodical, at the same interval, at six months. Youth and Sports Minister Bogdan Matei was accompanied in Thessaloniki by President of the Romanian Football Federation (FRF) Razvan Burleanu.

Burleanu delivered an ample presentation before the ministers and the presidents of the other federations and, for one hour, he made an x-ray of the UEFA and FIFA requirements, as well as of the infrastructure and capability of each country.

"Even if we are in the middle of the period in which my country holds the Presidency at the Council of the European Union and we have a very busy schedule, Romania sees very openly this quadrilateral joint project and shows all the cooperation for its advancement. The project of having a joint candidacy for such a large competition is extremely demanding and difficult. But we represent four ambitious nations and four friendly countries, and am convinced that they can can accomplish such a mission, if they join forces," Minister Matei said.

"I am glad that I had President of the Romanian Football Federation Razvan Burleanu with me, who presented very interesting and useful data and figures. Surely, the most important step is the Memorandum of Understanding signed today, whereby the four governments initialed the first written agreement on this project. I assure you of all the cooperation from my country and I hope that we will manage to form a strong and capable team, in order to show the world that four small countries in the Balkans can be at the same level as other forces of the sports world not only in terms of performance, but also in terms of organsation," Minister Bogdan Matei stated in Thessaloniki.

The first meeting of the Organising Committee is scheduled to take place in Bucharest, between 14 and 15 June.

Romania registered a successful bid to host four matches of the 2020 European Championship on the National Arena stadium. Bucharest will host three events within Group C and one in the round of 16. Thus, matches are scheduled to take place on the National Arena stadium on 14, 18, 22 and 29 June 2020. If qualifying, Romania's national team shall play at least two matches in Bucharest.