The major European national team competition of football has changed, and with less than a week until it begins, this is what the UEFA Euro Cup will look like this year in Germany.
This year’s Euro Cup will be contested by 24 teams. Twenty of them had to secure a spot through qualification matches, three others through a playoff, and Germany, as the host, is automatically qualified. These 24 teams are divided into six groups.
Group A consists of Germany, Scotland, Hungary, and Switzerland; Group B includes Spain, Croatia, Italy, and Albania. In Group C are Slovenia, Denmark, Serbia, and England; Group D includes Poland, the Netherlands, Austria, and France; Group E has Belgium, Slovakia, Romania, and Ukraine, and finally, Group F includes Turkey, Georgia, Portugal, and the Czech Republic.
The format is the usual one, with the group stage, round of 16, quarterfinals, semifinals, and final. The group stage starts on June 14, and each team plays three matches. The top two teams from each group, along with the four best third-place teams, advance to the round of 16, meaning that only 8 teams are eliminated in the group stage and 16 advance to the round of 16.
The knockout stage, comprising the round of 16, quarterfinals, semifinals, and final, begins on June 29. In total, 15 matches will determine who will succeed Italy as the best team in Europe. The final will be played at the Olympiastadion in Berlin on Sunday, July 14.
EURO CUP IN A SINGLE COUNTRY
FIFA is considering hosting the World Cup in multiple countries, as seen with the 2026 edition to be held in Mexico, the USA, and Canada, and the 2030 edition in Spain and Morocco.
UEFA, on the other hand, prefers to have the major European national team tournament hosted by a single country. It’s worth noting that the previous Euro Cup, in 2020, was held across various stadiums in Europe to commemorate the competition’s 60th anniversary. This year, the tournament returns to a single host nation, as it traditionally has been.
Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA, hinted when he was running for the presidency of football’s governing body that the World Cup should be held in one or two countries or even “an entire region.” On the other hand, UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has mentioned in interviews prior to the Euro Cup that security is one of the reasons for returning to a single-host format. “It is much easier for us to work with one police force and one secret service in a single country compared to a tournament spread across multiple countries,” he explained.
