Tournament will lack heart and soul – Blatter

Plans to stage the 2020 European championships across the entire continent instead of just one country will result in the tournament losing its identity and soul, FIFA president Sepp Blatter said. Euro 2020 will be held in 13 cities across the continent and the semi-finals and final will be played in the same stadium, UEFA said in January. “A tournament should be played in one country. That is how you create identity and euphoria,” said Blatter, the head of world football’s governing body. “They have fragmented the 2020 tournament. So it is not a European championship any more. It has to have a different name. I do not know what name. “Such a Euro lacks heart and soul.” The Swiss sports administrator also said he planned to end his stint at the top of the world football’s governing body in 2015 if FIFA was strong and stable. Blatter took over the top job in 1998. “I want to push through the FIFA reforms at our congress in Mauritius in May, then we go to Brazil for the World Cup in 2014 and after that everything is open. “When it is secured that FIFA will continue to be led like that, that it will remain global and the pyramid will not collapse then I will gladly hand over the...