No matches will be played in Nancy during the Euro 2016 tournament. This is the result of the stadium’s project committee officially resigning from the public-private partnership agreement that was set up to finance the stadium expansion. The committee cited “unacceptable conditions” imposed by construction firms Bouygues and Vinci as the main reason for them pulling the plug.
Another consequence is that the planned expansion of the Stade Marcel-Picot will be abandoned. The stadium, which can currently hold a little over 20,000 fans, was to be enlarged to a total of 32,000 seats in order to comply with UEFA requirements. However, the planned expansion had found itself to be increasingly unpopular with local residents, and with the worsening economic situation had been unable to secure sufficient funding.
With Nancy gone from the tournament the east of France is again left without a playing venue, as it was during the 1998 World Cup. Earlier other candidate Strasbourg had already pulled out of the selection process after RC Strasbourg had been relegated to Ligue 2 and a stadium expansion could no longer be financially justified.
This leaves Euro 2016 with a total of 10 host cities, with the final to be played at the Stade de France. The selection of stadiums is rather similar to that of the 1998 World Cup, with Lille and Nice replacing Montpellier and Nantes. Euro 2016 will be the first Euro Championships to be contested among 24 teams.