Italy, San Marino to host Euro football under-21s in 2019

The 2020 organisers have been trying to include the disaster-hit areas in their planning

The 2019 European under-21 Championship will be held in Italy and San Marino, the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) announced on Friday. The 12-team tournament, which will serve as Europe's qualifying competition for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, will see matches played in four Italian towns -- Bologna, Cesena, Reggio Emilia and Udine -- as well as in the tiny republic of San Marino. UEFA said the tournament is "likely to be played in June 2019". Italy has won the most European titles at under-21 level -- five -- but has never hosted the finals. The 2017 competition in Poland will be the first to feature 12 countries, expanded from the old format of eight teams.