NYON, Switzerland (AP) — Germany will host women’s soccer’s 2029 European Championship, promising record revenue and attendance Promote game development on and off the field.
UEFA voted overwhelmingly in favor of Germany on Wednesday in a three-way contest, opting for the promise of economic outcomes and sporting possibilities with national teams playing in packed stadiums in Munich and Dortmund.
The Women’s Euro, a project of eight German cities with 16 teams and 31 matches, beat out joint bids from Poland, Denmark and Sweden.
UEFA Executive Committee members gave Germany 15 votes, Scandinavian countries two votes and Poland zero votes.
UEFA president Alexander Ceferin said it would be “heartbreaking” for any of the three bids to be defeated, before pulling Germany’s name from the envelope announcing the winner.
A large delegation from the German Football Federation posed for a team photo at UEFA headquarters, after which they all donned white national team uniforms with the number 29 on the front.
“There are so many stadiums now, so I think it’s very exciting to see and play there,” said Germany goalkeeper Anne-Katrin Berger, who came directly to Switzerland from Madrid to support the bid and played on Tuesday night. Women’s Nations League final.
This recent victory for Germany means that within a generation, the country will host the FIFA Men’s and Women’s World Cups and the UEFA Men’s and Women’s Euros, from 2006 to 2029.
Switzerland set an attendance record for the popular and successful Euro 2025 tournament held in July, with an average of 21,000 people per game and more than 650,000 total spectators.
Germany expects to draw more than 1 million spectators to larger stadiums in Cologne, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hannover, Leipzig and Wolfsburg.
Germany’s bid leader Heike Ulrich said: “Women’s football has developed so well in recent years that we think we can fill stadiums.”
UEFA’s women’s strategy
The women’s Euros, hosted by Germany, could aim to turn a profit after European Football Association (UEFA) earmarked a 25 million euro ($29.1 million) subsidy for the more intimate tournament hosted by Switzerland.
“This is a major tournament that Germany can offer in 2029,” UEFA director of women’s football Nadine Kessler told The Associated Press. “That’s exactly what we want to capitalize on, to put women’s football right on the world map.”
Euro 2029 will be slotted between the final 32-team Women’s World Cup to be held in Brazil in 2027 and the first 48-team Women’s World Cup in 2027. 2031 was held primarily in the United States.
“We will be at the same level as the World Cup,” said former Germany national team standout Kessler. “I think by 2029 all the prejudices that we have faced over the years, not only economically but also in sports, will have been wiped out.”
Scandinavians refuse again
Denmark and Sweden’s bids offered smaller stadiums with comparable capacity, but Poland was looking to accelerate its path to becoming Europe’s women’s football powerhouse.
The Women’s Euro is expected to become a 24-team tournament in the future, and Germany was also seen as a safe bet after the expansion, which would pose a bigger challenge for other bidders on Wednesday.
Sweden and Denmark were a more decentralized four-Nordic project that also included Finland and Norway, but Switzerland narrowly won the vote to host the 2025 Games, an unexpected victory for Switzerland.
“It’s difficult to think about it at the moment,” Swedish Football Federation president Simon Áström said of the possibility of a third consecutive bid for the 2033 tournament, which is likely to involve 24 teams. “While we believed we had made a very strong bid, we also know that the competition is very strong this time around.”
It is unclear whether UEFA will be able to fast-track its expansion ahead of the 2029 tournament in Germany.
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