SAN FRANCISCO, September 28, (THEWILL) – Germany has won the right to stage the 2024 European Championship, beating Turkey in a vote by Uefa’s executive committee.
The two countries made final bid presentations before voting took place in Nyon, Switzerland.
Berlin’s Olympic Stadium will host the final of the 24-team tournament, with 51 games scheduled for up to 32 days in June and July.
The nine other cities that will be used for games are Cologne, Dortmund, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Gelsenkirchen, Hamburg, Leipzig, Munich and Stuttgart.
The decision means Germany will stage the European Championship for the first time as a unified country, with West Germany having hosted the 1988 tournament.
This is Turkey’s fourth defeat in the past five Euro bidding races. It had been hoping to mark the republic’s 100th anniversary in 2024 by staging its first major international football tournament.
It has seen previous attempts to host the Euros in 2008, 2012 and 2016 fail, as well as the 2020 Summer Olympics.
Whereas Germany’s hotel stock, stadiums and transport infrastructure are in place and of high quality, Turkey’s bid was marked down for needing to upgrade airports, railways, roads and stadiums, particularly at a time when its economy is struggling. The country’s human-rights record was also flagged up by a Uefaevaluation report.
Before announcing the winner, Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin said Germany and Turkey had made “very strong bids”.
After announcing the winner, he added: “The procedure was transparent. The voting was democratic. Every democratic decision is the right decision so I can only say I am looking forward to seeing a fantastic Euro in 2024.”
Euro 2024 will return to a single-host format after Euro 2020 is held across Europe, including Germany.
Meanwhile Uefa announced it would begin using video assistant referees (VAR) in next season’s Champions League, after a debut in the Super Cup. It also approved the use of VAR for the 2020 European Championship and the 2020-21 Europa League.
The first Uefa game using technological help for referees is expected to be 14 August 2019 in the Super Cup between this season’s Champions League and Europa League winners in Istanbul. It will then be used from the play-off stage onwards of the 2019-20 Champions League.
