Lens all set for UEFA EURO 2016

A special 'one year to go' ceremony marked 12 months until Lens stages its first UEFA EURO 2016 fixture: at the Stade Bollaert-Delelis, Le Rendez-Vous in nearly here!

Lens is not the biggest city – 35,000 inhabitants – but its football heritage and local support ensured its status as one of the host cities. "Having Lens in the list of the cities likely to host UEFA EURO 2016 was far from obvious," said EURO 2016 SAS president Jacques Lambert. "The project owes a lot to [RC Lens chairman] Gervais Martel's resilience and to local assemblies' togetherness."

Michel Dagbert, president of the conseil départemental Pas-de-Calais, and Cécile Bourdon, vice-president of Région Nord – Pas-de-Calais agreed and insisted on the need "to work hand in hand" to make UEFA EURO 2016 in Lens a success.

Celebrations, organisation and security formed the main questions during the press conference. Lambert also broke down the benefits to expect from the competition ahead of a full house of local business figures. "€1.1 billion for the country, and more precisely, €60m to €200m per city, according to sites' sizes," he said.

About a kilometre from the Stade Bollaert-Delelis, which should be ready on  30 July, the officials started the countdown. Before that, the people of Lens spent the whole morning around the Louvre-Lens museum, where they took part to a treasure hunt, the treasure being tickets for the UEFA EURO 2016 matches to be played in Lens.

"We hope France play in Bollaert," said Sylvain Robert. "In both the 1998 FIFA World Cup and 2007 Rugby World Cup, the finalists had played here. Playing in Lens might be a good omen for the teams."

Martel even pointed out the “experience” the town had gained from those events. "It all started with André Delelis," said the Lens chairman. "He was a mayor who made history here, Hosting EURO 2016 is a reward for the local people, who live for football."