Jonathan Ford: FAW chief says Cardiff hosting Champions final 'strengthens' Euro bid

FAW chief executive Jonathan Ford (L) helped bring the 2017 Cardiff Champions League final to Cardiff

Football Association of Wales chief Jonathan Ford believes their bid to host Euro 2020 matches will be helped by staging the Champions League final.

Doubts over whether Belgium's new Eurostadium will be ready have seen Uefa consider possible replacements.

Since the original bids, which saw Wales miss out, Cardiff's Principality Stadium successfully hosted the 2017 Cardiff Champions League final.

"We have a much stronger case [now]," Ford told BBC Sport Wales.

"We put forward a very strong bid in the first place and were, of course, disappointed to lose out.

"After that we... bid and successfully staged the Champions League final, which I hope would go some way to prove... we can do it.

"We made a great success of that, a fantastic event, a fantastic week of football and I hope we can do it again for Euro 2020."

The 2017 Champions League week saw Cardiff Bay host a Football Village and Festival that included a legends football match on a floating platform.

Football politics

The Women's Champions League final between Lyon and Paris Saint-Germain and Champions League final between Juventus and a Real Madrid side containing Wales star Gareth Bale, were both played in the Principality Stadium.

The successful staging of such a high-profile event has strengthened Cardiff's hand, but the FAW faces competition from Wembley and Stockholm in Sweden if Belgium fails to deliver its new stadium in time.

Euro 2020 is being spread among 13 host cities across Europe, with Wembley Stadium already part of the schedule.

"I'm not going to underestimate the politics of world football, unfortunately that will have something to say," Ford admitted.

"There is Stockholm in the mix as well and unfortunately they also missed out.

"However, let's hope that with a bigger stadium than Stockholm, with hopefully a stronger bid we could be in a position to hopefully not only [host] some of those matches but let's hope Wales qualify and see even some of the matches featuring Wales at the Principality Stadium."

The Friends Arena in Stockholm holds 50,000 fans, while the Principality has a capacity of 74,500 and Wembley 90,000.