Back On Track?

The successful bid for Euro 2024 has given German football the chance to rebuild its reputation. Keir Radnedge reports

- Keir Radnedge

German football sees the opportunity for redemption in the European Championship – both on the pitch and off it, with the national team hoping to reclaim in 2020 the lustre it squandered at this year’s World Cup and the DFB putting financial scandal behind it by staging Euro 2024.

In September, UEFA’s executive committee voted 12 to 4 – with one abstention and one illness absentee – in favour of Germany for the latter finals.

The European federation is relieved to return the 24-team tournament to a single host after the derided, all-over-the-place staging in 2020. The last time the finals were held on German territory was by the former Federal Republic in 1988, two years before reunification.

Turkey, meanwhile, must go on waiting to stage a major tournament, although Istanbul did host the Champions League Final in 2005 and will do so again in 2020. However, this was the country’s fourth failure in its pursuit of hosting the Euro finals.

The Turks had lost to France by just one vote in the duel for 2016 and their media assailed UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin over 2024 for reneging on some unspecified suggestion that he had promised to back Turkey in exchange for support in his 2016 presidential bid.

The idea appears highly unlikely and Ceferin has denied it. But whatever the truth, he will not be counting on Turkish support when he seeks re-election next spring – though that should have little effect on him remaining in his post.

Regardless of any voting promises, UEFA’s own report on the rival 2024 bids identified a string of German advantages.

Firstly, the DFB had proposed 10 stadia, all of which already exist, while Turkey had proffered seven existing arenas, plus two more to be rebuilt and one to be renovated. In addition, the total capacity for the 51 matches in Germany will be 2,780,000 – as opposed to 2,290,000 in Turkey.