Bilbao, Madrid presented by Spanish federation as candidates to host Euro 2020

MADRID, Dec 18, 2013 - The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) confirmed on Wednesday that the new San Mames stadium in Bilbao and Atletico Madrid's future home La Peineta will be their candidates to host matches at Euro 2020.

Espanyol's Cornella El Prat and Valencia's new Mestalla stadium, which had previously been earmarked as potential hosts have now been discarded.

"After analysing the four stadiums initially presented as candidates for the European Championships in 2020, the board has announced that it will propose San Mames (Bilbao) and La Peineta (Madrid) as candidates to host matches during the tournament," the RFEF said in a statement.

Both the stadiums selected have yet to be completed.

The new San Mames opened in September, but one stand is still to be constructed before it will reach its full capacity of 53,000.

Meanwhile, La Peineta, which would have been the Olympic stadium in 2020 had Madrid's bid for the Games been successful, will not be ready to host matches until at least 2016, but does have the advantage of a significantly bigger capacity of 70,000.

Euro 2020 will be the first international tournament to be spread across 13 host cities in different countries with 32 federations already having expressed their interest in hosting matches.