UEFA President Michel Platini, responding to criticism from FIFA boss Sepp Blatter, claims that staging Euro 2020 in venues across the continent lends true meaning to the concept of a European championship.

Platini, in an interview to appear in Thursday's edition of L'Equipe, said: "A European championship of nations will never have been better named as for the first time it will be played across the entire European continent."

The all-embracing nature of Euro 2020 has come in for criticism, notably from world soccer head Blatter.