Danubius International Conferences, 15th International Conference on European Integration - Realities and Perspectives

The institutional challenges of organizing a large-scale sports event in Romania. The example of UEFA EURO 2020

Florin Sari
Last modified: 2020-04-11

Abstract

Romania had in 2020 for the first time in almost 40 years the opportunity of hosting a large-scale sports event, the UEFA EURO 2020 final tournament. Celebrating 60 years of EURO and spread over 12 cities of the European continent, EURO had the ambition of being the largest, jet the closest sports event to the fans, bringing together diverse communities, histories and civilizations. Additionally to its festive character, EURO 2020 posed for Romania a number of challenges on institutional, legal and material level.  Furthermore, the postponement of the tournament due to the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need of advanced management tools, including risk management, resilience plans, quick reaction and response.

 

The present paper analysis and evaluates the institutional structures implemented for the project management: the Government Steering Committee, the Local Organizational Structure and the various working groups, the relationship among them and with the European organizer – UEFA and elaborates a preliminary set of conclusions and recommendations. Furthermore, it presents a possible scenario for the restart of the preparatory works, based on the current timetable of the postponed project.