Baroness Sue Campbell insists Euro 2022 has struck right balance with stadiums

Baroness Sue Campbell reiterated her defence of Euro 2022’s venues as the tournament closes in on half a million ticket sales

The Football Association’s director of women’s football believes they have made the right calls over stadiums.

Manchester City Academy Stadium and Leigh Sports Village will host games, with both capacities under 10,000 for the Euros, while Old Trafford, Wembley, St Mary’s and Bramall Lane are also venues for the tournament which starts next month.

Iceland midfielder Sara Bjork Gunnarsdottir criticised some venue choices - calling the use of the Academy Stadium, which will have a capacity of 4,700, “disrespectful” - but Campbell is happy with the decisions.

She said: “We start with people who were prepared to work with us to do the tournament. 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 is 725,000.

“So there is still capacity there, so it’s how you balance the England games which everybody wants to go to, with the reality that the other matches, however good they are, are not going to attract a full audience.

“So did we get the balance right? We will look at it again, but you’ve got a big stadium opening it, you’ve got a big stadium closing it off at Old Trafford and Wembley.

“We think we’ve got the balance about right. We’ll have a good look at it at the end and have a check and that is where we are at the moment.”

England host the Netherlands at Elland Road on Friday in the second of three warm-up games.

The tournament fixtures which have sold out so far include each of England’s group games, which start with a July 6 clash against Austria at Old Trafford, and the July 31 Wembley final.

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