President of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Aleksander Ceferin has invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to attend the opening ceremony of the 2020 Euro Cup, which will be celebrating its 60th anniversary next year.

Axar.az reports citing Russian media.

Ceferin and Putin were attending ‘Russia - Country of Sports’ international sports forum on Thursday in the Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod. As they met at the ‘Modern Sport. Innovations’ exhibition, organized within the frames of the forum, Ceferin personally invited Putin to the opening ceremony of the main European football tournament.

The UEFA president told Putin that although it was still a long time before the launch of the championship, it would be a great honor if the Russian president found the time to attend the opening ceremony.

"I will try," Putin said adding that "this will be the case when the football will unite everyone."

Speaking earlier in the day at the forum’s plenary session UEFA President Ceferin stated that Russia was "more than ready" to host matches of the European football championship next summer.

The matches of the 2020 Euro Cup will be held at stadiums in 12 different cities across Europe, namely in London (England), Munich (Germany), Rome (Italy), Baku (Azerbaijan), Saint Petersburg (Russia), Bucharest (Romania), Amsterdam (The Netherlands), Dublin (Ireland), Bilbao (Spain), Budapest (Hungary), Glasgow (Scotland) and Copenhagen (Denmark).