Seventy-seven-year-old Swiss says new setup will not make the competition a truly European affair.
Fifa boss Sepp Blatter has been heavily critical of the structure of the 2020 European Championship which is set to be held across 13 different countries on the Continent.
“A tournament belongs to a country, across which is created an identity and state of euphoria. The 2020 tournament has been dispersed and it is no longer a true European championship,” Blatter told German magazine Kicker on Thursday.
“It should be called something else, I don’t know what but such a tournament will lack heart and soul.”
Blatter also pointed out to UEFA president Michel Platini that the idea was not a new one and was in fact initially proposed by slain Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi for the organisation of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
“Colonel Kadhafi told me that a match should be held in each of the 53 African countries. I told him, it was unthinkable.”
Platini who launched the concept at the conclusion of Euro 2012, said he had received the congratulations of the FIFA president last December and quoted Blatter as saying it was “fantastic” during the agreement to proceed with the idea at the last UEFA executive committee meetings.
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