European football’s governing body UEFA announced that Germany will host the women’s 2029 European Championships, where England will be the two-time defending champions.
Germany, the record eight-time winners of the Euros, beat off competition from Poland and a joint Sweden-Denmark bid, and will host the tournament for the third time, just five years after doing so for the men’s Euros. It is a measure of compensation for Germany, who missed out on hosting the 2027 women’s World Cup when FIFA picked Brazil instead.
In its bid, Germany had vowed to help women’s football realise it’s “enormous potential”. “We have the big stadiums and I’m convinced we will fill them,” German football federation president Bernd Neuendorf said recently. The eight host stadiums include Munich’s 70,000-capacity Allianz Arena, Dortmund’s 66,000-capacity Westfalenstadion and five more stadiums with between 45,000 and 54,000 capacities.
Germany believes it will be able to sell more than a million tickets to the 31 matches – compared to 657,291 for this year’s tournament in Switzerland. The country highlighted it’s central European position and strong public transport links in its bid.
Sustainability has become a key issue in bidding processes for major events, given the damaging environmental impact of such tournaments. Switzerland boasted that 86 percent of ticket holders for its tournament used either public transport, bicycles or walked to reach their venues.
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