UEFA Euro 2024

• 1. Introduction

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  Twenty-three seconds into UEFA Euro 2024, a goal by Albania's Nedim Bajrami against Italy became the fastest ever scored at a European Championship. The previous record stood at 67 seconds, set by Russia's Dmitri Kirichenko in 2004.

  That early strike set the tone for the 17th European Championship, which ran from the 14th of June to the 14th of July 2024. Twenty-four national teams took part, and Germany was the host.

  Behind the football sat a long list of questions. How did Germany win the right to stage the event, and why did it come with a rival bid? Which countries earned a place, and who was left at home? What happened on the pitch, and in the stands, that people were still arguing about weeks later? And what did a tournament built around the slogan of unity actually look like once the crowds arrived?

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• 2. Choosing Germany

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  On the 8th of March 2017, UEFA announced that two bids had come in before the deadline of the 3rd of March. One came from Germany and the other from Turkey.

  The decision belonged to the UEFA Executive Committee, voting in a confidential ballot. A simple majority was enough, and if the vote tied, UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin would settle it. Of the 20 committee members, Reinhard Grindel of Germany and Servet Yardımcı of Turkey were ineligible to vote. Lars-Christer Olsson of Sweden was absent through illness. That left 17 voters. The ballot split 12 to 4, with one abstention.

  The result came on the 27th of September 2018 in Nyon, Switzerland. Germany had once planned to host the earlier, multi-nation edition on its own, although by May 2012 it had announced no firm interest.

  The choice carried some history. West Germany had hosted the championship in 1988, and Munich staged four matches of the multi-nation 2020 edition. That made 2024 the third time German territory held European Championship games, and the second time since reunification. Leipzig, as a host city, also made it the first edition played in what was once East Germany.

  Germany was also the sole host of a major tournament for the first time since the 2006 FIFA World Cup. The competition had slipped from its four-year rhythm because the 2020 edition was pushed back a year by the COVID-19 pandemic. Next came the question of where to put 24 teams and millions of fans.

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• 3. Ten Host Cities

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  Every stadium at the tournament had to hold at least 30,000 seats, and Germany had plenty to choose from. Berlin's Olympiastadion was the largest, with a capacity of 71,000. It staged the final, three group matches, a round of 16 tie and a quarter-final.

  Nine of the ten venues had also served at the 2006 World Cup: Berlin, Dortmund, Munich, Cologne, Stuttgart, Hamburg, Leipzig, Frankfurt and Gelsenkirchen. Düsseldorf was the exception. It had no 2006 games, but it had hosted matches in 1974 and 1988. Hanover, Nuremberg and Kaiserslautern, all 2006 cities, were left out, as were stadiums in Bremen and Mönchengladbach.

  The Rhine-Ruhr region in North Rhine-Westphalia held four of the ten cities: Dortmund, Düsseldorf, Gelsenkirchen and Cologne. Munich's Allianz Arena opened the tournament. Leipzig's Red Bull Arena was the smallest ground, at 40,000. Because of a ban on stadium sponsorship, every arena except Arena AufSchalke played under a different name from its everyday one.

  Ticket sales opened on the 3rd of October 2023. Of roughly 2.7 million tickets for the 51 matches, more than 80 percent went to supporters of the finalists or to the general public. Applications topped 50 million from 206 countries. Apart from German fans, the biggest demand came from supporters of Turkey, Hungary, England, Albania and Croatia. Prices started at €30 for a seat behind the goal at a group match and reached €2000 for a Prime Seat at the final.

  The teams themselves lived in small German towns. Each chose a base camp inside the country, and the choices included Ludwigsburg, Herzogenaurach, Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Donaueschingen. Before any of them could unpack, though, they had to qualify.

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• 4. Road To Germany

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  Germany, as host, was the only team with a place guaranteed. The other 23 spots went through qualifying. Winners and runners-up of 10 groups claimed 20 places, and the final three came from play-offs open to the best Nations League performers who had not already qualified.

  The qualifying draw took place on the 9th of October 2022 at the Festhalle in Frankfurt. Group games ran from March to November 2023, and the play-offs followed in March 2024.

  Portugal was the only team to qualify with a perfect record. France, England, Belgium, Hungary and Romania all finished unbeaten. Nineteen of the 24 finalists had also played the previous edition.

  Georgia provided the story of the qualifying campaign. It beat Greece on penalties in the play-offs and reached its first tournament since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. As the only debutant, Georgia kept alive a streak: every final tournament since Euro 1960 had included at least one newcomer.

  Albania and Romania returned after missing out in 2020. Serbia and Slovenia came back for the first time since Euro 2000.

  Sweden missed a finals for the first time since Euro 1996. Wales, semi-finalists in 2016, lost a play-off to Poland on penalties. North Macedonia and Finland, both debutants last time, also failed to return.

  Russia never had a chance to qualify. At a meeting in Hvar, Croatia, on the 20th of September 2022, UEFA's Executive Committee confirmed that Russia would be excluded. The suspension of all Russian teams began after the country's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. It meant Russia, a regular at finals since Euro 2004, would miss its first European Championship finals since 2000.

  The final draw took place on the 2nd of December 2023 at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. A prankster disrupted the ceremony with sexual noises. Meanwhile, squads for the finals had room for more players than before, with the limit raised from 23 to 26 and a list due by the 7th of June.

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• 5. Spain's Perfect Run

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  Spain scored 15 goals across the tournament, one more than the 14 France managed in 1984. No team had scored so many at a single European Championship. Ten different Spanish players found the net, another record.

  Spain beat England 2-1 in the final and took a record fourth title. It also won all three group games, as it had in 2008. Only France in 1984 and Italy in 2021 had done that once. Spain then won all seven matches without a penalty shoot-out. France had done the same in 1984, though across only five games.

  The defending champions did not last. Italy, winners of the 2020 final against England on penalties, went out to Switzerland in the round of 16. Host nation Germany fell to Spain in the quarter-finals.

  England, for its part, became the first team to lose consecutive European Championship finals. Manager Gareth Southgate became the first manager to lose back-to-back finals at either the World Cup or the European Championship.

  UEFA's technical observers handed Rodri the Player of the Tournament award. Six of the eleven players in the Team of the Tournament came from Spain.

  The top scorer award worked differently this time. Earlier editions used assists and minutes played as tiebreakers, but now the prize could be shared. Six players finished on three goals and all received it: Cody Gakpo, Harry Kane, Georges Mikautadze, Jamal Musiala, Dani Olmo and Ivan Schranz.

  The fans voted too. Online voters chose Turkish defender Mert Müldür's group stage goal against Georgia as their goal of the tournament, announced on the 20th of July 2024.

  Money followed results. Each of the 24 teams received a participation fee of €9.25 million, and a group win was worth €1 million. A champion could earn up to €28.25 million. One young Spanish winger stood out beyond all of these numbers.

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• 6. Ages And Extremes

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  Lamine Yamal was 16 years and 338 days old when he played for Spain against Croatia in the opening match. He became the youngest player ever at a European Championship, beating Poland's Kacper Kozłowski, who was 17 years and 246 days old in 2021.

  In the semi-final against France, Yamal scored at 16 years and 362 days. The previous youngest scorer was Switzerland's Johan Vonlanthen, 18 years and 141 days old in 2004, also against France. UEFA's observers later picked that strike as the goal of the tournament, announced on the 16th of July 2024. They also named him Young Player of the Tournament, an award for players born on or after the 1st of January 2002.

  The final fell one day after his 17th birthday, which made him the youngest player to appear in and win a European Championship final. The earlier mark belonged to Portugal's Renato Sanches, who was 18 years and 328 days old in 2016.

  At the other end of the age scale, Portugal's Pepe appeared in the quarter-final against France at 41 years and 130 days. That made him the oldest player in the competition's history. Hungary goalkeeper Gabor Király had held the record at 40 years and 86 days. Cristiano Ronaldo extended his own record by playing in his sixth European Championship.

  Croatia's Luka Modrić scored against Italy aged 38 years and 289 days, the oldest goalscorer on record. The previous holder, Austria's Ivica Vastić, was 38 years and 257 days old when he scored against Poland in 2008.

  The bench had its own record. Julian Nagelsmann was 36 years and 327 days old when he took charge of Germany's opener against Scotland. That made him the youngest head coach to manage a European Championship match, six days younger than Slovenia's Srečko Katanec in 2000.

  Some records were about discipline. The Group F game between Czech Republic and Turkey produced 19 cards, 17 yellow and 2 red, with Turkey collecting 12. The old match record was 10, from the Euro 2016 final.

  Penalties offered another. Portugal's Diogo Costa made three saves in the round of 16 shoot-out against Slovenia, a European Championship record. Slovenia became the first team in World Cup or European Championship history to miss every one of its penalties.

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• 7. Trouble And Tragedy

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  In Group F, the Turkey and Portugal match was stopped four times by fans who ran onto the pitch hoping for a selfie with Cristiano Ronaldo. Two more invaded after the final whistle. Other invasions came in the matches between Albania and Italy, and Romania and Ukraine, and in the round of 16 game between Romania and the Netherlands.

  After the semi-final between Spain and France, a security guard chasing an invader slid into Spanish striker Álvaro Morata and injured him. Players and managers also complained about reusable plastic cups thrown onto the pitch, sometimes hitting players taking corners. Kevin De Bruyne had a laser pointer shone in his eye.

  The most frightening moment came in Scotland against Hungary. Hungarian striker Barnabás Varga collided with Scottish goalkeeper Angus Gunn and lay unconscious. He later turned out to have a concussion and several fractured cheekbones. Stretcher bearers were seen walking, which dismayed players and fans. Hungary captain Dominik Szoboszlai and teammate Endre Botka ran with the stretcher themselves.

  Szoboszlai afterward said he hoped everyone could save a few seconds and save a life. UEFA replied that the on-site medical coordination was professional. Play resumed after 10 minutes. Hungary won 0-1 on a goal by Kevin Csoboth, scored in the 10th minute after the 90-minute mark, the latest regulation-time goal in tournament history. Varga recovered fully after surgery.

  The group stage also brought trouble linked to the Balkans. Albania and Serbia were each fined €10,000 after fans displayed maps with irredentist symbols. Serbia threatened to quit if UEFA did not act on anti-Serbian chants by some Croatia and Albania supporters. Albania was fined €47,250 after Mirlind Daku led nationalist chants, and he received a two-game ban. Kosovar journalist Arlind Sadiku was also banned.

  On the 2nd of July 2024, Turkey's Merih Demiral scored twice against Austria and celebrated his second with the wolf salute. The gesture is linked to the far-right Grey Wolves and is banned in Austria and France. German interior minister Nancy Faeser criticised it. UEFA gave Demiral a two-match ban, and Turkish supporters made the gesture en masse before the next game.

  The tournament's darkest news came from outside Europe. On the 14th of July 2024, Al-Shabaab bombed Top Coffee in Mogadishu, Somalia, where people were watching the final. More than ten people died and 20 were injured.

  Spain's own celebrations drew a complaint. Videos showed Álvaro Morata and Rodri joining offensive chants about Gibraltar. The Gibraltar FA said it would complain to UEFA, which suspended both players for Spain's next Nations League match, against Serbia.

  Finally, the quarter-final between Germany and Spain left a dispute about referee Anthony Taylor. Toni Kroos could have been booked twice early on, and Marc Cucurella's handball in extra time might have meant a penalty. UEFA's own referees committee later concluded that a penalty should have been given.

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• 8. Bears, Balls And Brands

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  At a ceremony in Berlin's Olympiastadion on the 5th of October 2021, UEFA unveiled the logo. It showed the Henri Delaunay Trophy ringed by 24 coloured slices, one for each finalist, and the colours also stood for the flags of all 55 UEFA members. The ellipse echoed the shape of the stadium.

  Each host city had a logo of its own. Berlin used the Brandenburg Gate, Cologne its cathedral, Leipzig the Monument to the Battle of the Nations and Munich the Frauenkirche. The slogan, "United by Football", appeared in German as "Vereint im Herzen Europas", meaning united in the heart of Europe.

  The mascot arrived on the 20th of June 2023 at a Germany and Colombia friendly in Gelsenkirchen. It was a teddy bear in shorts. Fans voted on its name, choosing from four puns on the German word for bear, Bär. "Albärt" won with 32 percent of the vote.

  An unofficial oracle also emerged, following Paul the Octopus. Bubi the Elephant "predicted" Germany's opener against Scotland by kicking a ball through a makeshift goal.

  Adidas and UEFA unveiled the match ball, Fussballliebe, on the 15th of November 2023. The name means football love. It was the first Euro ball with Connected Ball Technology, using internal sensors to help officials track its movement.

  On the screen and in the shop, EA Sports released a downloadable Euro update on the 11th of June for several football games, including a career mode called "Lead Your Nation". Fanatics took control of retail and licensing for UEFA national team competitions through Euro 2028. Its sister company Topps replaced Panini as the sticker partner, ending a link that began in 1976.

  The official song, "Fire", came from Meduza, OneRepublic and German singer Leony, who replaced Kim Petras after she withdrew. It was released on the 10th of May 2024 and performed live before the final.

  The broadcast centre sat in the halls of the Leipzig Trade Fair. UEFA dropped 4K broadcasts after two tournaments, citing technical limits. For the first time at a Euro, virtual advertising let sponsors show different messages for Germany, the United States and China. The next edition, Euro 2028, would be the first to pass under Fanatics' retail control.

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