LONDON — UEFA President Michel Platini has held talks with English football officials about staging key 2020 European Championship matches at Wembley Stadium. Platini has proposed scattering matches across as many as 12 European countries, rather than selecting a single host nation in 2020. At talks in London last week, Platini discussed the prospect of using Wembley for the Euro 2020 semifinals and final with English Football Association chairman David Bernstein, a person familiar with the situation said Monday. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks were private. Platini came up with the radical plan for Euro 2020 after Turkey emerged as the only formal bidder. But if Istanbul's 2020 Olympics bid wins next September, Turkey won't be allowed to stage the Euros in the same year as well. The English FA doesn't want to get dragged into a costly bidding process for the Euro 2020 games after the failure of its bid for the 2018 World Cup, which attracted just two FIFA votes at the December 2010 decision. But Platini already declared he has a strong liking for the 90,000-capacity Wembley Stadium, which re-opened in 2007 after being rebuilt. After the success of the 2011 Champions League final at Wembley, UEFA took the unprecedented step of handing the north London venue the 2013 final as well. It will be the first time a stadium has hosted the European Cup final twice in three years, although Wembley hosted the final twice in four years in 1968 and 1971. Hulk is no Messi Zenit Saint Petersburg midfielder Igor Denisov has branded new signing Hulk a second-rate star after being demoted from the first team for speaking out about the Brazilian striker's lucrative contract. “I would understand if we got (Argentine superstar Lionel) Messi or (Spanish midfielder Andres) Iniesta – they probably deserve any price,” said Russian captain Denisov. — Agencies
