Rome's Stadio Olimpico will be sent into the running as Italy's only candidate for host city status at Euro 2020, the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) has announced.
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caption:Roma and Lazio have played at the Stadio Olimpico since 1953.
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Milan's San Siro, which will host the 2016 Champions League final, is not deemed by CONI to have the necessary qualities for staging matches during the first continent-wide European Championship in six years' time, and has therefore been discarded.
"Rome will go forward with its candidacy for Euro 2020 while Milan has been dropped as an idea because only the Olimpico matches the UEFA criteria for this type of international competition," CONI president Giovanni Malago said in Gazzetta dello Sport.
"We'll wait and see on Sept. 19 whether Roma succeeds in forming part of this strange edition which will be spread over many countries. It's going to be a European Championship of capital cities, when you see that there will be 13 host cities."
Even if the Olimpico is successful, work must still be carried out to bring it up to the required "technological and security" standards, according to Malago.
"UEFA does not want further segmentation of the sectors," he said. "If I'm not wrong, even the San Siro has work to do for the 2016 Champions League final."
Roma, who share the Olimpico with Lazio, have announced plans to open a new stadium for the 2016-17 season.