2025 edition of the UEFA Women's Football European Championship
UEFA Women's Euro 2025
Fussball-Europameisterschaft der Frauen 2025 Championnat d'Europe féminin de football 2025 Campionato europeo di calcio femminile 2025 Campiunadi d'Europa da ballape dunna 2025
The 2025 UEFA Women's Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Women's Euro 2025 or simply Euro 2025, will be the 14th edition of the UEFA Women's Championship, the quadrennial international football championship organised by UEFA for the women's national teams of Europe. The tournament will be played in Switzerland from 2 to 27 July 2025.[1] It will be the third edition since it was expanded to 16 teams. The tournament will return to its usual four-year cycle after the previous tournament was delayed to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
England are the defending champions, having won the 2022 tournament.
Applications were submitted in August 2022,[2] while final submissions were made in October. Switzerland were selected as hosts of the tournament on 4 April 2023 at the UEFA Executive Committee in Lisbon, Portugal.[3] To be appointed as hosts, an absolute majority of votes was needed in the first round. If the first vote did not produce an absolute majority, the two bids with the most votes would advance to a second and final round. As the first round produced a three-way tie for first, a ballot was used to determine which two bidders would proceed to the second round.[4]
Four declarations of interest to host the tournament were received by UEFA before the deadline of 12 October 2022.[5]
Poland – On 3 June 2021, Zbigniew Boniek, head of the Polish Football Association, announced that the association had filed its bid at UEFA to host the 2025 Women's Championship, citing women's football as gaining in popularity in many European countries, including Poland.[6]
Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden – On 15 October 2021, the Danish Football Association announced that the Nordic countries Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden, with support from Iceland and Faroe Islands, have confirmed their bids to host the UEFA Euro 2025.[7][8] On 6 April they submitted their application[9] with multiple stadiums in each host country.[10] The government of Sweden declared its support on the 12th.[11] Finland also submitted an application to be part of the 2025 women's football European Championship on 12 October 2022.
On 2 December 2023, the schedule was provisionally announced, with Basel hosting the opening match and the final.[17][18][19][20] With the exception of one game, (the opening match), the schedule splits the venues into two different geographical clusters: Bern, Geneva, Sion and Thun in the west zone, with Basel, Lucerne, St. Gallen and Zürich in the east zone.[17] Prior, Bern wanted to host the final, but after Young Boys raised their worries about the turf being damaged, they were only allowed to use the stadium as far as the quarterfinals.[21]
In total, 51 teams entered the qualifying competition.[25]Russia were not permitted to enter the competition, as Russian teams had been suspended indefinitely from UEFA and FIFA competitions in 28 February 2022 due to their country's invasion of Ukraine.[26] In addition, Gibraltar, Liechtenstein and San Marino did not submit an entry.
The following teams have qualified for the final tournament alongside host Switzerland.
The final draw will take place on 16 December 2024 at the SwissTech Convention Center in Lausanne, with hosts Switzerland placed in group position A1.
The 16 teams will be drawn into four groups of four teams. The hosts are assigned to position A1 in the draw while the other teams will be seeded according to the UEFA Women's Euro 2025 qualifying ranking.[27]
Switzerland has stated that their goal is to sell out every game at the tournament and increase the benchmark for women's sporting events.[37]
On 8 March 2024, to celebrate 500 days to go before the tournament starts, the Swiss Football Association organised a kick off event in Bern. During the event, they launched their slogan for the tournament, Summit of Emotions.[38]
Despite being skeptical about the money involved,[39][40]Lucerne will fund the tournament for 4 million Francs and will organise an event exactly a year before the tournament starts.[41][42][43]
The Security Commission in Bern approved a loan of 1.2 million Francs for sports promotion after the tournament.[44][45]
The Finance Committee of the Council of States applied for a loan of 5 million francs for Swiss tourism in regards to the tournament.[46][47] They added another 1.13 millions Francs on 11 June 2024.[48]
On 31 May 2024, the Swiss Football Association published their legacy plan.[49][50] The tournament coordinator, Doris Keller, also emphasises the hope that the tournament will have an impact for Swiss women's football.[51]
On 14 June 2024, before the start of UEFA Euro 2024, a Swiss Federation delegation went to Swiss embassy in Berlin to have a sport-related party and discussed their ambitions for Euro 2025.[52]
It is projected that 80% of people attending the matches will be Swiss.[53][54]
As of 2 July 2024, no host city contracts have been signed yet.[55]
During the ticket launch event, the campaign to find volunteers also started.[56]
On 24 October 2024, Zürich unveiled their ambassadors for the tournament.[57][58]
Tickets
Around 720,000 tickets will be on sale for the tournament. Tickets prices start at 25 Francs.[59] Tickets will be put up for sale on 1 October 2024.[60][61] A ticket launch event took place at the Jungfraujoch.[62][63][64]
One-year-to-go events
Several cities around early July organised events to commemorate a year before the opening match kicks off.[17][65]
Bern
The city of Bern held a one year to go event in collaboration with the Tour de Berne, with activities on 30 June 2024, at the Bundesplatz.[17] Municipal Councillor Reto Nause said:
"We are looking forward to an unforgettable football festival here in the heart of Europe, in the heart of Switzerland, in the heart of Bern!"
Basel
In Basel, a countdown clock was unveiled and activated on 2 July.[66][67][68][69] Plus, a tram advertising the Women's Euro will travel round the city.[70] Basel has set aside 12.9 million francs for the European Championship.
Zürich
In Zürich, it has been confirmed that a fan zone will be set up on Europaallee. Similar to Basel, a tram with the Women's Euro design and colours will go around the city.[71][72][73]
Lucerne
Lucerne Cantonal Councillor Michaela Tschuor and Mayor Beat Züsli was at the Europaplatz to promote the tournament. A mobile football field will also be on the road around Lucerne's municipalities.[74]
Michaela Tschuor said at the media event in Europaplatz:
"it is a great honour for us to be able to welcome top female footballers next year, it is important to us to promote women and young girls and to focus on the importance of this sport."[75]
St Gallen
St Gallen's organised a mini football pitch that several girls' teams played on.[17] Also, St Gallen held a media conference to underline their plans for the tournament.[76] City Councillor, Mathias Gabathuler, says he wants to unleash a wave of enthusiasm for women's football in the city. The canton will also support a training course for women, while Céline Bradke, Women's Euro Project Manager for St Gallen, announced that around 200 volunteers will be present on match days.
St Gallen have already pledged 1.4 million francs for the planning, organisation and implementation of the event.
Controversies
Government funding
On 31 January 2024, the Swiss federal government announced they would support the tournament with 4 million Francs.[77][78] This sparked controversy as during the bidding process, they promised 15 million Francs and was a big reason why the Swiss bid won.[79][80] Many people around women's football and politicians in Switzerland criticised the funding cuts, with people from the former saying how England's hosting of the 2022 edition changed the perception of the sport in the country and had big economic benefits for the host cities.[79][81] Regarding the latter, co-president of the parliamentary group “Euro 25” Corina Gredig, said that the tournament will become a “junk tournament” with the lack of money.[82][83] While municipal councillor of host city Thun, Katharina Ali-Oesch, said they the city might have to withdraw as a host venue due to the cuts in funding.[82]
The Swiss Football Association also said that this money will only be partially sufficient for their goals for the tournament and hoped the situation will be taken up again in the further political discussion.[78][84]
On 16 February 2024, the Committee of the Council of States for Science, Education and Culture, applied for a federal contribution of 15 million Francs for the competition.[85] The Council of States was able to get a cross-party commission motion calling for the federal government to support the Women's Euro 2025 in Switzerland with 15 million Francs to be unanimously approved by the lower house.[86][87][88]
Then, on 6 March 2024, the eight host cities sent a letter to the federal government asking them to reconsider their decision, stating that they have spent millions on this tournament and hoped for improvements.[89]
On 19 April 2024, mayor of Lucerne, Beat Züsli, stated that in order to deliver to tournament as sustainable as possible, the 15 million Francs are vital.[42][90][91][92]
On 27 April 2024, the Swiss house of representatives voted in favour of increasing the money to 15 million Francs.[93][94][95]
On 8 May 2024, the finance commission also threw their support for a potential increase in financial support.[46][96]
The official decision on the amount of money for the tournament will be confirmed during a Swiss parliament session in June 2024.[97] On 30 May 2024, the Council of States and the National Council officially reversed the decision to allocate 4 million and increased the distributed money to 15 million.[98][99][100]
Basel's concerns
On 30 August 2023, it was reported that while Basel wants to host the tournament, they were concerned about the additional costs and scheduling conflicts that would occur due to hosting the competition.[101] Also, it was deemed necessary by UEFA that Basel needs to guarantee that there would be no blackout in St. Jakob-Park during the tournament and requested that they upgraded their lights.[101] However, on 29 September 2023, the problems were fixed as, at a cost of 1 million francs, LED lights were put in place for the stadium.[102] Although, as of July 2024, no host city contract has been signed yet.[103][55]
Participation of Israel in qualification
According to the Scottish FA, the forthcoming UEFA Women's Euro 2025 qualifier between Scotland and Israel at Hampden Park will be played behind closed doors on 31 May due to keeping the safety of supporters, players, team staff and officials.[104]
