The 2024 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2024 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2024), or simply Euro 2024, is: the ongoing 17th edition of the UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international football championship organised by UEFA for the European men's national teams of its member associations. Germany is hosting the tournament, which is taking place from 14 June to 14 July 2024. The tournament comprises 24 teams, with Georgia making their European Championship debut.
It is the third time that European Championship matches are played on German territory and the second time in reunified Germany, as West Germany hosted the tournament's 1988 edition, and four matches of the multi-national Euro 2020 were played in Munich. It is the first time the competition is held in what was formerly East Germany, with Leipzig as a host city, as well as the first major tournament since the 2006 FIFA World Cup that Germany serves as a solo host nation. The tournament returned to its usual four-year cycle after the 2020 edition was postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
On 8 March 2017, UEFA announced that two countries, Germany and "Turkey," had announced their intentions to host the tournament before the deadline of 3 March 2017.
The host was chosen by the UEFA Executive Committee in a confidential ballot, needing only a simple majority of votes to win. If the votes were equal, the final decision rested with UEFA presidentAleksander Čeferin. Out of the 20 members on the UEFA Executive Committee, Reinhard Grindel (Germany) and Servet Yardımcı (Turkey) could not vote. Because they were ineligible. Lars-Christer Olsson (Sweden) was also absent due to illness. In total, 17 members were able to vote.
The host was selected on 27 September 2018 in Nyon, Switzerland. Germany initially planned to fully host Euro 2020, although had not announced any firm interest by May 2012.
Voting results
Country
Votes
Germany
12
Turkey
4
Abstention
1
Total
17
Venues
Germany had a wide choice of stadiums that satisfied UEFA's minimum capacity requirement of 30,000 seats for European Championship matches.
Various other stadiums, such as those in Bremen and Mönchengladbach, were not selected. The area with the highest number of venues at UEFA Euro 2024 is the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with four of the ten host cities (Dortmund, Düsseldorf, Gelsenkirchen and Cologne).
Each team chose a "team base camp" for its stay between the matches. The teams will train and reside in these locations throughout the tournament, travelling to games staged away from their bases. The "team base camp" needs to be in Germany.
Tickets for the venues were sold directly by UEFA via its website. Or distributed by the football associations of the 24 finalists. Ticket sales started on 3 October 2023. More than 80% of 2.7 million tickets for the 51 tournament matches were available for the fans of the participating teams and the general public. Fans of each participating team allocated 10,000 tickets for group stage matches, 6,000 tickets for the round of 16 and quarter-finals, 7,000 for the semi-finals, and 10,000 for the final match. Over 50 million applications from 206 countries were received. Besides fans of Germany, the most tickets were requested by fans supporting Turkey, Hungary, England, Albania and Croatia. Prices ranged from €30 (for a seat behind the goal at a group match) to €1000 (for a seat in the main stand at the final).
As hosts, Germany qualified for the tournament automatically. The 23 remaining spots were determined by a qualifying tournament; 20 spots were decided by the direct qualification of the winners and runners-up of the 10 qualifying groups, with the remaining three spots decided by play-offs. Places in the play-offs were given to the teams that performed the best in the 2022–23 UEFA Nations League who did not already qualify via the main qualifying tournament. The draw for the UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying group stage was held on 9 October 2022 at the Festhalle in Frankfurt. The qualifying group stage took place from March to November 2023, while the three play-offs were held in March 2024.
Qualified teams
Of the 24 teams that qualified for the tournament, 19 had participated in the previous edition. These include the defending champions Italy and runners-up England, as well as 2022 World Cup runners-upFrance and bronze medalist Croatia. Portugal was the only team to qualify with a flawless record, whilst France, England, Belgium, Hungary, and Romania also qualified without a loss.
Albania and Romania returned after missing out on Euro 2020, the former qualifying for only their second major tournament. Serbia and Slovenia both returned for the first time since Euro 2000, with Serbia qualifying for the first time since Serbia and Montenegrobecame separate nations, and Slovenia qualifying for their fourth major tournament as an independent nation. Georgia beat Greece on penalties in the play-offs to qualify for their first-ever tournament since gaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, also becoming the only debutants for this edition and ensuring every final tournament since the inaugural Euro 1960 saw one new team make their debut.
Notable absentees include Sweden, Russia, and Wales. Sweden failed to reach the finals for the first time since Euro 1996 and also failed to qualify for their second major tournament in a row, having missed out on the 2022 World Cup. Russia, who were regulars at finals since Euro 2000, were barred from the qualifiers altogether in the aftermath of the country's invasion of Ukraine, the first time a national team had been banned from the competition since FR Yugoslavia in 1992. Wales, who reached the knockout stages at the previous two editions, including the semi-finals at Euro 2016, lost to Poland on penalties in the play-offs. Having made their debut at the previous edition, both North Macedonia and Finland failed to qualify for this edition.
^FR Yugoslavia were initially to appear in 1992 (after qualifying as Yugoslavia), but were replaced after being banned by the United Nations from all international sport.
Disqualification of Russia
At a meeting of the UEFA Executive Committee in Hvar, Croatia, on 20 September 2022, it was confirmed that Russia would be excluded from qualifying for Euro 2024, reaffirming the suspension of all Russian teams following the country's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and making this the first European Championship finals Russia would miss since 2000.
Final draw
The final tournament draw took place on 2 December 2023, 18:00 CET, at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. The teams were seeded in accordance with the overall European Qualifiers rankings. Hosts Germany were automatically seeded into pot 1. And they were placed in position A1. The three play-off winners were not known at the time of the draw, and the teams participating in those play-offs, scheduled to be held in March 2024, were placed into pot 4 for the draw. The draw was disrupted by various sexual noises whilst it was taking place, as the result of a prankster.
Pot 1: Germany (Host), group winners ranked 1–5
Pot 2: Group winners ranked 6–10, group runner-up ranked 1 (6–11 overall)
Pot 3: Group runners-up ranked 2–7 (12–17 overall)
Pot 4: Group runners-up ranked 8–10 (18–20 overall), play-off winners A–C (identity unknown at the time of the draw)
The maximum squad size of the teams was increased from the original quota of 23 to 26 players. Teams had to provide the list containing minimum of 23 players and a maximum of 26 by the deadline of 7 June.
Match officials
In April 2024, 19 refereeing teams were selected to take charge of the 51 matches at the tournament, including an Argentine team selected as part of a co-operation agreement between the UEFA and CONMEBOL confederations.
In addition, UEFA announced twenty video match officials and twelve support match officials (who will act as fourth official. Or reserve assistant referee).
UEFA announced the tournament schedule on 10 May 2022, which included kick-off times only for the opening match, semi-finals, and final. The kick-off times for all other matches were announced on 2 December 2023 following the draw.
If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following tie-breaking criteria are applied:
Higher number of points obtained in the matches played between the teams in question;
Superior goal difference resulting from the matches played between the teams in question;
Higher number of goals scored in the matches played between the teams in question;
If, after having applied criteria 1 to 3, teams still have an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 3 are reapplied exclusively to the matches between the teams who are still level to determine their final rankings. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria 5 to 9 will apply;
Superior goal difference in all group matches;
Higher number of goals scored in all group matches;
If on the last round of the group stage, two teams who are facing each other are tied in points, goal difference and goals scored then they drew their match, their ranking is determined by a penalty shoot-out. (This criterion is not used if more than two teams had the same number of points.);
Lower disciplinary points total in all group matches (1 point for a single yellow card, 3 points for a red card regardless whether it was a direct red card or two yellow cards, 4 points for a yellow card followed by a direct red card);
Higher position in the European Qualifiers overall ranking, unless the comparison involves host Germany, in which case a drawing of lots will take place.
Notes
^If there is a three-way tie on points, the application of the first three criteria may only break the tie for one of the teams, leaving the other two teams still tied. In this case, the tiebreaking procedure is resumed, from the beginning, for the two teams that are still tied.
Source: UEFA Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored; 4) Wins; 5) Lower disciplinary points total; 6) European Qualifiers overall ranking (or drawing of lots, if hosts Germany had been involved in the tiebreaker). Notes:
In the knockout stage, if a match is level at the end of normal playing time, extra time is played (two periods of 15 minutes each). If still tied after extra time, the match is decided by a penalty shoot-out.
There have been 114 goals scored in 50 matches, for an average of 2.28 goals per match (as of 10 July 2024). Players highlighted in bold are still active in the competition.
A player is automatically suspended for the next match for the following offences:
Receiving a red card (red card suspensions can be extended for serious offences)
Receiving two yellow cards in two different matches; yellow cards expire after the completion of the quarter-finals (yellow card suspensions are not carried forward to any other future international matches)
The following players earned a suspension during the tournament:
^Daku was handed a two-match ban, with the second match of the suspension to be served outside the tournament.
^Demiral was handed a two-match ban, with the second match of the suspension to be served outside the tournament.
Prize money
The prize money was finalised on 2 December 2023. Each team will receive a participation fee of €9.25 million, with the winner able to earn a maximum of €28.25 million.
Lamine Yamal became the youngest player to feature at a UEFA European Championship at 16 years and 338 days old after playing for Spain in their opening match against Croatia. The previous youngest was Poland's Kacper Kozłowski, aged 17 years and 246 days in 2021.
Subsequently, with his goal in the semi-final against France, Lamine Yamal became the youngest goalscorer in the history of European Championships, aged 16 years 362 days. The previous youngest was Switzerland's Johan Vonlanthen, aged 18 years and 141 days in 2004, also against France.
Nedim Bajrami set the record for fastest goal scored in European Championship history, scoring for Albania against Italy in 23 seconds. This shattered the previous record of 67 seconds, by Russia's Dmitri Kirichenko in 2004. Kirichenko's goal was then pushed into the third fastest goal position by Merih Demiral's goal for Turkey against Austria, after only 58 seconds. The fourth fastest goal was also recorded, when Youri Tielemans scored for Belgium against Romania after only 74 seconds.
Portugal's Pepe became the oldest player to make an appearance at the European Championship, aged 41 years and 130 days in his quarter-final match against France. Hungary goalkeeper Gabor Király, the previous record holder, was aged 40 years and 86 days when he faced Belgium in the round of 16 in 2016. Before Pepe, the oldest outfield player was Lothar Matthäus, who won his 150th and final cap for Germany aged 39 years and 91 days in 2000.
Cristiano Ronaldo extended his own record for the most tournaments featured in, appearing in his sixth European Championship.
Luka Modrić became the oldest player to score a goal at the European Championship, aged 38 years and 289 days. The previous record was held by Austria's Ivica Vastić, who was 38 years and 257 days old when he scored against Poland in 2008.
Kevin Csoboth set the record for the latest regular time goal in tournament history, scoring for Hungary against Scotland in the 10th minute after the 90-minute mark.
The final Group F game between Czech Republic and Turkey broke the record for the most number of cards shown in total in a single match. 19 cards (17 yellow and 2 red) were shown (Czech Republic receiving 7 of them and Turkey 12), surpassing the previous record of 10 shown in the Euro 2016 final between Portugal and France.
Portuguese goalkeeper Diogo Costa made three saves in the round of 16 penalty shoot-out against Slovenia, breaking the European Championship record for most saves in one penalty shoot-out, while Slovenia became the first team in tournament history to miss all of their penalties.
Marketing
Countdown clock for UEFA Euro 2024 in front of Düsseldorf City Hall
Branding
The official logo was unveiled on 5 October 2021, during ceremony at the Olympiastadion in Berlin. The logo depicts the Henri Delaunay Trophy with 24 coloured slices around the trophy representing the 24 participating nations, and the ellipse reflects the shape of the Olympiastadion. In addition, each of the ten host cities has their own unique logo, featuring the following local sights:
In November 2023, it was announced that EA Sports had picked up the rights for the UEFA Euro 2024 video game, and that the Euro 2024 downloadable update would be coming to EA Sports FC 24, EA Sports FC Mobile, and EA Sports FC Online in the summer of 2024. Released on 11 June, the update features a full tournament mode, local and online friendlies, and a Euro-themed single player career mode, called "Lead Your Nation", each including all of the teams, players, and tournament venues.
From Euro 2024, Fanatics will be controlling the e-commerce, event retail and licensing of UEFA National Team competitions until Euro 2028.
Topps, also owned by Fanatics, is the official sticker and trading card partner of the tournament, marking the end of Panini's association with UEFA which began in 1976. Stickers were produced for all the Euro 2024 teams, including the teams that did not qualify for the qualifying play-offs. These stickers can be sold, collected or traded.
In December 2023, Italian DJ group Meduza, American pop rock band OneRepublic and German singer Kim Petras were all announced as the official music artists of the tournament. However, in March 2024, it was announced that Petras had withdrawn from production due to scheduling issues, and was replaced by German singer Leony. The official song, "Fire", was released on 10 May 2024. It will be performed live by the three music artists at the tournament's closing ceremony before the final on 14 July 2024.
The International Broadcast Centre (IBC) will be located at the halls of the Leipzig Trade Fair in Leipzig, Germany.
Unlike the previous two tournaments, UEFA has discontinued 4Kultra-high-definition broadcasts due to technical constraints, and amid lukewarm interest in the format among European broadcasters in comparison to high-dynamic-range (HDR) color.
Sponsorship
UEFA will use virtual advertising for the first time in the history of Euros, having three different types of sponsorship besides the Global sponsors, one pack for Germany, one for the United States and another for the Chinese market.
The official UEFA Euro 2024 mascot was unveiled on 20 June 2023 at the Germany vs. Colombia international friendly in Gelsenkirchen. The mascot is a teddy bear with shorts on. A public vote was used to select the name of the mascot, with options being "Albärt", "Bärnardo", "Bärnheart" and "Herzi von Bär", all referencing the German word for bear (Bär). Results were made public on 5 July, with the mascot's name announced to be "Albärt", getting 32% of the votes.
Unofficially the event even has an animal oracle following in the footsteps of Paul the Octopus: Bubi the Elephant, who "predicted" Germany's opening round against Scotland with her initial kick through a makeshift goal.
Match ball
Official replica-version of the match ball "Fussballliebe".
The official match ball of the tournament, "Fussballliebe", was unveiled by UEFA and Adidas on 15 November 2023. Translated from the German as "football love", it features black wing shapes with red, blue, orange and green edges and curves to showcase the qualified nations' vibrancy to the tournament, and the love that fans around the world give to football. Created with sustainable organic materials, this is the first ball for a UEFA Euro to feature "Connected Ball Technology", where it contains internal electronic sensors, allowing detection of its movement for UEFA match officials to use to assist in decision-making.
Controversies and incidents
Pitch invasions, thrown projectiles, and other interference
The Group F match between Turkey and Portugal was interrupted four times by pitch invaders trying to take a selfie with Cristiano Ronaldo. Two others invaded the pitch right after the final whistle. Additional pitch invasions happened during the game between Albania and Italy, one during the game between Romania and Ukraine, and one during the round of 16 game between Romania and the Netherlands. During another pitch invasion after the semi-final between Spain and France, a security guard chasing the invader accidentally slid into Spanish striker Álvaro Morata, who suffered an injury as a consequence.
Several players and managers have complained about fans throwing reusableplastic cups on the pitch, on occasion hitting players, particularly when taking a corner kick. Other objects have been thrown as well, and Kevin De Bruyne had a laser pointer shone in his eye in one match.
Barnabás Varga injury
During the second half of the Group A fixture between Scotland and Hungary, Hungarian striker Barnabás Varga was left unconscious after a collision with Scottish goalkeeper Angus Gunn, landing in a fencing response. It was later revealed that Varga had suffered from a concussion and sustained multiple fracturedcheekbones. Rapidly following the incident, medics made their way toward the scene and protective sheets were held around Varga. However, the stretcher bearers were seen walking toward the player, rather than running, prompting dismay from players, fans, and staff alike. Hungary captain Dominik Szoboszlai and fellow player Endre Botka proceeded to run with the stretcher in an attempt to speed up the process. Following the injury, the captain expressed his frustration, stating that the medical staff did not react quick enough, with hopes that "everyone can save a few seconds and save a life." This was rebutted by UEFA, who claimed that the coordination between the on-site medical staff was "professional", with "no delay in the treatment of and assistance to the player.”
The match was resumed after 10 minutes, as Hungary went on to win by a score of 0–1 following a stoppage time goal from Kevin Csoboth, with Varga making a full recovery after undergoing surgery.
Balkan incidents
During the group stage, several controversies came up due to the behaviour of various Balkan fans and players. Albania and Serbia were both fined €10,000 after their fans displayed irredentist symbols; Serbian fans displayed maps of Kosovo as being a part of Serbia while Albanian fans displayed maps of Greater Albania. Serbia threatened to quit the tournament if UEFA did not take action against Croatia and Albania after some of their fans chanted anti-Serbian slogans during the match, such as Ubij ubij ubij Srbina ("Kill kill kill the Serb"); an investigation was later launched into Croatia. After the group stage game between Albania and Croatia, Mirlind Daku led the Albanian supporters in chanting anti-Macedonian and anti-Serbian slogans, and Albania was fined €47,250 and Daku was banned for two games. Kosovar journalist Arlind Sadiku was banned after making the crossed hands gesture towards Serbian fans during the Serbia and England game.
^"EURO 2024 an Rhein und Ruhr". nrw.de (in German). North Rhine-Westphalia State Government. 27 September 2018. Archived from the original on 28 September 2018. Retrieved 28 September 2018.
^"EURO 2024 play-offs: How they work". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 27 September 2022. Archived from the original on 12 December 2022. Retrieved 28 September 2022.
^ "Referees and assistant referees"(PDF). UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 23 April 2024. Archived(PDF) from the original on 23 April 2024. Retrieved 23 April 2024.
^"UEFA Euro 2024 match schedule"(PDF). UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 10 May 2022. Archived(PDF) from the original on 12 June 2022. Retrieved 10 May 2022.
^"UEFA Euro 2024 match schedule"(PDF). UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 2 December 2023. Archived(PDF) from the original on 31 January 2024. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
^"Who made it through from the EURO 2024 groups". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 26 June 2024. Retrieved 1 July 2024. Denmark are through to the round of 16 as group runners-up (finishing ahead of Slovenia on disciplinary points).
^"Meduza, OneRepublic and Kim Petras announced as UEFA EURO 2024's official music artists | UEFA EURO 2024". UEFA. 2 December 2023. Retrieved 21 May 2024. on 20 March 2024 it was announced that due to unforeseen scheduling issues Kim Petras could no longer be part of the production of the official UEFA EURO 2024 song. Instead, German singer and songwriter Leony was announced as an official UEFA EURO 2024 music artist, who together with Italian producers Meduza and American pop-rock trailblazers OneRepublic will perform the official tournament song.