Germany beats Turkey to host Euro 2024 tourney

Final to be held in either Berlin or Munich

NYON, SWITZERLAND — Germany won the right to host soccer’s 2024 European Championship on Thursday, beating Turkey following a politically charged campaign.

Germany, which successfully hosted the 2006 World Cup, was the longtime favourite and won the UEFA executive committee vote 12-4. There was one abstention.

Three months after FIFA members picked a North American bid over Morocco to host the 2026 World Cup, UEFA also opted for a more proven and profitable option. Unlike FIFA, UEFA does not publish who the voters picked.

Turkey is now a four-time losing candidate after failed bids to host Euro 2008, 2012 and 2016. This was the first time UEFA built human rights assessments into the process.

“Every democratic decision is the right decision,” said UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin, who has been closely allied with German soccer federation president Reinhard Grindel as European colleagues on the

FIFA Council.

UEFA relies on its signature national-team competition to help fund 55 member federations. Revenue from the first 24-team Euro, hosted in 2016 by France, was almost $2.35 billion. UEFA got $1 billion in profit.

Germany should have about 400,000 more tickets to sell than the Euro 2016 organizers. It also had 300,000 more seats than Turkey’s bid.

The UEFA voters were given confidential revenue projections for each candidate’s plan.

“They (Turkey) were beaten by a slightly stronger bid,” said David Gill, a UEFA vice-president who also chairs the body’s finance committee.

Germany plans to use 10 stadiums for the 51-game tournament and play the final in Berlin or Munich.

Turkey proposed its strongest, government-backed bid yet with eight of 10 stadiums already completed and owned by the sports ministry. Yet it was likely to struggle in the first UEFA hosting vote with a human rights assessment.

The government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has become increasingly authoritarian and a UEFA report into the candidates published last week noted Turkey’s lack of a tournament plan to address human rights.

A currency crisis in Turkey has also seen the lira lose almost half its value against UEFA’s working currency, the euro, in the past year.

Germany will look to recapture the positive feeling of its monthlong 2006 World Cup, which became known as the nation’s “Summer Fairytale.” A wellliked and underrated national team helped Germans express a fresh pride in their national identity and symbols more than a decade after reunification with East Germany.

“Of course it will be a great motivation for young players and for the kids,” said Germany coach Joachim Loew, who was assistant to Juergen Klinsmann in 2006.

Europe’s signature competition was hosted in 1988 by

West Germany, one year before the Berlin Wall came down.

Bid officials from Turkey quickly left UEFA headquarters and avoided international media. Their compensation is that the same UEFA voting panel decided the 2020 Champions League final will be played in Istanbul.