2016 European Championships at 10 stadiums across France

The 2016 European Championships will be held in 10 stadiums across nine French cities. This was confirmed by the UEFA Executive Committee on Friday as per what the French Football Federation had handed in to UEFA.

At its meeting at the House of European Football in the Swiss city of Nyon, the Executive Committee endorsed the following venues for the finals in three summers' time: Bordeaux, Lens, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Nice, Paris, Saint-Denis (Stade de France), Saint-Etienne and Toulouse.

Saint-Etienne and Toulouse had been left out of the original list, which also had included Nancy in a nine venue list but the FFF increased to 10 venues in nine cities later on.

Before the final tournament, UEFA's member associations will begin the qualifying competition for UEFA EURO 2016 in September 2014, following the qualifying competition draw the previous spring. The draw for the finals will take place at the end of 2015.

The 2016 edition would be the first European Championships to feature 24 teams instead of 16 which has been usual over the last few editions and this means more venues are needed to host the bigger tournament with more matches to be played.

Euro2016: France announce nine host cities

The 2012 European Championships have still to be played next year in Poland and the Ukraine, but the preparations have already begun for the next champions in 2016. The hosts will be France, who have now finalised the nine stadia which will host the 2016 edition of the UEFA European Championships.

The French Football Federation has decided to hold the tournament across nine stadiums. The tournament will be played in Paris' Par des Prince, the Stade de France in the Paris suburb of St. Denis plus Bordeaux, Lens, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Nancy and Nice.

Surprisingly the cities of Toulouse and Saint-Etienne didn't make the list of host cites and have been named as reserve host cities should one of the above not be ready for the tournament.

The 2016 edition would be the first European Championships to feature 24 teams instead of 16 which has been usual over the last few editions and this means more venues are needed to host the bigger tournament with more matches to be played.

FFF president Fernand Duchaussoy said, "All the bids were of a very, very high standard, but the choice was very clear and decided at the first round of voting."