A post on the national governing body's Facebook page today confirmed that its Executive Committee had "resolved to propose the city of St Petersburg" as a potential host for Euro 2020 matches.

The $1.1 billion (£700 million/€825 million) stadium, which will be the new home of Russian Premier League side Zenit St Petersburg, is due to open in 2015 with a capacity of about 70,000.

Fears that hosting the World Cup two years earlier would harm its bid to host matches at Euro 2020 were allayed by FIFA President Sepp Blatter earlier this week, as he said that hosting the biggest tournament in world football would be seen as an advantage for its bid as it will ensure that the necessary infrastructure is in place to host major international tournament fixtures.

FIFA President Sepp Blatter believes that hosting the FIFA World Cup in 2018 will help Russia's bid to host matches at Euro 2020 rather than hinder

Russia joins Turkey, Germany, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, England, Portugal, Belarus, France, Israel, Belgium, Serbia, Ukraine, Hungary and Switzerland as nations that have already revealed that their bids have been officially confirmed by their respective Football Associations to UEFA.

The deadline for national associations to officially submit their bids is today, before the UEFA Executive Committee announces the final list of candidate cities next Friday (September 20).

Bid dossiers must then be submitted to UEFA by late April next year, before the host cities are revealed in September 2014.

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