Italy considers bid to host Euro 2028 or World Cup 2030
The Hindu
Some Italian stadiums have not been updated since the 1990 World Cup, the last major football tournament hosted by Italy alone.
Italy is considering making a bid to host the 2028 European Championship or the 2030 World Cup but must improve its stadiums if it is to succeed, the head of the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) said on Thursday. Italy beat England on Sunday to win their second European Championship. The two countries could also be rivals to host the World Cup, which is held every four years, as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has backed plans for a bid by the United Kingdom and Ireland for the 2030 finals. “We will evaluate an Italy candidacy for the 2028 European Championship and the World Cup of 2030, in which the centenary of the world championship is celebrated,” FIGC president Gabriele Gravina told a news conference. “Let’s try for the Euros first, then we’ll think about the other one.”He has worn India’s blues, albeit in an Under-19 World Cup, with K.L. Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Harshal Patel and Jaydev Unadkat as his teammates. He has proudly adorned the Lion’s Crest — the famed Mumbai cricket logo — in all three formats. He has played with Yuvraj Singh, against Virat Kohli and Rahul Dravid and has the likes of Rahul and Joe Root in his illustrious list of dismissals. He is also a software developer for an IT giant, based in California. Virtually every middle-class Indian over the last three decades at some stage dreams of being either a cricketer or an IT professional. Saurabh Netravalkar has been combining two dreams, even after relocating to USA to pursue academics at the prestigious Cornell University in 2015.
Unlike most of the Olympic-bound athletes, who opt to train abroad before the big event, boxer Amit Panghal prefers training in home conditions prior to Paris 2024. A former World championships silver medallist and a World No. 1, Panghal won the 51kg quota place in the only chance he got. He wants to follow his own plans to script success in Paris.
The other men’s semifinal Friday is Norway’s Casper Ruud, twice the runner-up in Paris — to Rafael Nadal in 2022 and to Novak Djokovic in 2023 — against Germany’s Alexander Zverev, a finalist at the 2020 U.S. Open, an Olympic gold medalist and into the final four at Roland Garros for the fourth consecutive year.