Germany on Thursday won the race to host the 2024 European Championship as UEFA backed a bid seen as safer than a rival proposal from Turkey.
Politics, national unity and respect for human rights in Turkey emerged as key themes in the campaign to host Europe’s premier international soccer event.
In the end, the result was not close: Germany, which had been the favorite, won the vote among UEFA’s executive committee members 12-4, with one abstention.
UEFA said that the German bid already had everything in place to host a successful event — from stadiums to infrastructure.
“We will do our utmost to live up to our expectations,” German Football Association president Reinhard Grindel said.
Germany hosted the World Cup in 2006, but has never staged the Euro as a unified country: West Germany hosted in 1988.
The win also offers a boost to German soccer after a disastrous FIFA World Cup, when the nation failed to qualify for the last 16.
UEFA has also said it wants to make as much money as possible from the 2024 tournament and Germany was considered the better financial bet.
The German bid, which sees matches spread over 10 stadiums, has the capacity to sell 2.78 million tickets — nearly 300,000 more than Turkey.
However, Germany did not just pitch itself as a steady hand that can host a lucrative tournament without a hitch — it has also voiced hope that a tournament on its soil could build societal unity.
After the World Cup debacle, German soccer was engulfed in an ugly ordeal by Arsenal star Mesut Ozil’s retirement from international competition.
Ozil, born in Germany to Turkish parents, accused the German association of racism after he was targeted with xenophobic comments for being photographed with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan before the World Cup.
By coincidence, Erdogan arrived in Germany on Thursday for a three-day state visit, including talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
German Minister for Foreign Affairs Heiko Maas said the tournament “will be an opportunity to show what we stand for in Germany: openness to the world and tolerance, freedom and respect.”
“Together, we have to make the European Championship a tournament for all Europeans,” he added.
Erdogan had desperately wanted to deliver a first major sporting event to his soccer-mad nation.
Istanbul notably lost the race to host the 2020 Olympics to Tokyo, and Turkey also narrowly missed the chance of to host Euro 2016, which went to France.
Erdogan’s government has spent heavily on soccer infrastructure, including gleaming new stadiums, and pitched itself as “a land bridging continents.”
Ultimately, it proved to be not enough and Erdogan’s increasingly authoritarian reputation likely did not help his cause.
This was the first Euro bidding process that included specific human rights requirements.
In an ominous sign for Turkey ahead of the vote, UEFA’s evaluation report said that “the lack of action plan in the area of human rights is a matter of concern.”
The Euro 2024 result might be a bitter personal defeat for Erdogan, who has sought to build a reputation as a man who can deliver.
Turkish Sports Minister Muharrem Kasapoglu called the outcome “sad” and implied that the loser in the bidding was not Turkey, but the tournament itself, which would miss out on the experience of taking place in Turkey.
“In this sense we have lost nothing as a country. Euro 2024 has lost out from the point of view of our experience of hospitality,” he said.
SSC Napoli’s Italian Serie A title hopes suffered a late setback on Sunday when they were held to a 2-2 draw at home against Genoa, setting up a thrilling season finale with closest rivals Inter just one point behind. The hosts remain top with 78 points, holding a slim lead over Inter, who won 2-0 at Torino earlier on Sunday, with two rounds remaining. To make matters worse for Napoli, midfielder Stanislav Lobotka, struggling with an ankle injury, was forced off just minutes after the match began. Scott McTominay delivered a perfect pass into the box where Romelu Lukaku got
Harry Kane opened the scoring ahead of lifting his first career silverware as Bayern Munich beat Borussia Moenchengladbach 2-0, with veteran Thomas Mueller playing his last home game for the club. Bayern officially won the title on May 4 when defending champions Bayer Leverkusen were held to a 2-2 draw at Freiburg, but were presented with the Bundesliga shield in front of their home fans at full-time. Dripping wet after being showered with beer by teammates, Kane said the title win was “an incredible feeling,” and hoped it would be “the first of many.” “It’s been lot of hard work, a lot of
A stunning Lamine Yamal strike on Thursday helped crown Barcelona La Liga champions with a 2-0 win over local rivals RCD Espanyol, with victory ensuring Real Madrid cannot catch them at the top of the table. Yamal’s effort and Fermin Lopez’s goal took Hansi Flick’s side seven points clear of Los Blancos with two matches remaining, to clinch Barcelona’s 28th title and complete a superb domestic treble. Only the UEFA Champions League title escaped an exciting young Barca side this season, as they won the league for the second time in six years, at Espanyol’s ground again just as in 2022-2023. Back then,
Jannik Sinner on Thursday marched into the semi-finals of the Italian Open after destroying Casper Ruud in straight sets 6-0, 6-1, while Coco Gauff won a marathon three-set battle with China’s Zheng Qinwen to advance to the women’s singles final. American Gauff is to face Italy’s Jasmine Paolini in today’s title match after pulling through 7-6 (7/3), 4-6, 7-6 (7/4) in a match that lasted over three-and-a-half hours. Ruud was supposed to be Sinner’s toughest test in Rome since he came back from his three-month doping ban, as the Norwegian came into the match in hot form on clay after winning in
RSS