Euro 2022: Football Association defends stadium choices

The Football Association has defended the choice of stadiums for the Women’s Euros this summer.

There has been criticism that Manchester City’s Academy Stadium and Leigh Sports Village will host games, with both capacities under 10,000.

However Baroness Sue Campbell, the FA’s director of women’s football, defended the move.

“We’ll have a good look at it at the end and have a check and that is where we are at the moment,” she said.

“We think we’ve got the balance about right.”

In April Iceland’s Sara Bjork Gunnarsdottir said using City’s Academy Stadium, which she called a “training ground” and which will host two Iceland games next month, was “disrespectful”.

Old Trafford, Wembley, St Mary’s and Bramall Lane are also venues for Euro 2022 which starts on 6 July.

Baroness Campbell added: “We’ve sold 450,000 tickets which is pretty much double what they sold in Holland [for Euro 2017].

“The capacity put together in all of the stadiums [for all of the matches] is 725,000.

“So did we get the balance right? You’ve got a big stadium opening it, you’ve got a big stadium closing it off at Old Trafford and Wembley.”

Original article published 21.06.2022 on the BBC Sport website.

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