Next summer from 14th June to 14th July football fans have the UEFA Euro 2024 championships in Germany to look forward to. With 24 nations competing across 10 cities in Germany in the fantastic stadiums of the Bundesliga clubs, it is something of a return to a traditional festival of international football.
Whilst this summer there is no major international tournament in the men’s game, the FIFA Women’s World Cup takes place in Australia and New Zealand, but will be tricky for European fans to get to or even watch on television, due to the distance, time zones and TV scheduling.
The last Euros were due to be held in 2020 but were postponed and finally held in 2021, across numerous countries and with attendances restricted, all due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The recent FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar was restrictively expensive and difficult to attend for some fans. So with Euro 2024 the prospect of a huge summer tournament on European turf will be hugely appealing to hundreds of thousands of fans across the continent, who will make the pilgrimage to Germany to watch their national teams in action.
For some older fans, they will remember the last time Germany hosted the European Championships in 1988, a magical tournament set alight by the host’s neighbours from the Netherlands. A brilliant Dutch team featuring Ronald Koeman, Marco van Basten, Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard captured the imagination with the quality of their football, defeating the Soviet Union 2-0 in the final at the Olympiastadion in Munich.
The legacy of the Soviet team will not be represented at Euro 2024 by Russia, as they have not been invited to take part in qualifying, due to the invasion of Ukraine. Meanwhile, Ukraine themselves could make it to the finals if they can qualify from a tough group which also features England and Italy.
Italy are the defending champions but in the Euros the holders do not automatically qualify for the next finals tournament. So the Italians must negotiate their tricky qualifying group to make it to Germany to defend their title. The signs are not great for Italy as they lost their opening qualifier at home to England and they are also still recovering from the national shame of not qualifying for the last two World Cup finals competitions, in Russia and Qatar.
The Germans also made a great job of organising the 2006 World Cup and in fact nine of the host cities from that tournament will host games in Euro 2024: Berlin, Cologne, Dortmund, Frankfurt, Gelsenkirchen, Hamburg, Leipzig, Munich and Stuttgart. Düsseldorf is the other Euro 2024 host city, having not been used in 2006, but having hosted games in the 1974 FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euro 1988.
The opening game will take place on 14th June 2024 at 9pm, with hosts Germany taking on an as yet undefined opponent in Group A at the Allianz Arena in Munich. Exactly one month later the final takes place at the Olympiastadion in Berlin, with the semi-finals being held in Munich and Dortmund.
Germany knows how to look after its football fans, with great organisation, well-priced food and drink, excellent transport links, fabulous fan parks and public viewing areas, plus a warm welcome from the Fußball-mad locals. So anyone traveling to Euro 2024 can expect to experience a superb atmosphere in and around the host cities.
Who’s the smart money on to win the finals then? Many bookmakers have France as the favourites to win the competition, with England after an impressive start to qualifying and Germany as hosts also hotly tipped. Meanwhile ‘usual suspects’ Spain, Italy and Portugal are also amongst the favourites, with odds set to vary as qualifying continues.
