Germany picked by UEFA to host 2029 European Championship in women’s soccer

NYON, Switzerland (AP) — Germany will host the 2029 European Championship in women’s soccer, promising record revenue and attendances to drive forward the game’s development on and off the field.

UEFA voted overwhelmingly Wednesday for the Germany bid in a three-candidate contest and opted for the promise of financial results and sporting potential with the national team playing in sold-out stadiums in Munich and Dortmund.

Germany’s eight-city project for an expected 16-team, 31-game Women’s Euros beat Poland and a co-hosting bid by Denmark and Sweden.

UEFA executive committee members gave 15 votes to Germany, two to the Scandinavians and none to Poland.

UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin said it was “heartbreaking” that any of the three bids should lose before he pulled Germany’s name out of the envelope to announce the winner.

A large German soccer federation delegation posed for team photos at UEFA headquarters then all pulled on white national-team jerseys with the number 29 on the front.

“With all the stadiums we have now I think it is very exciting to see and to play there,” said Germany goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger, who came to Switzerland to back the bid directly from Madrid where she played Tuesday evening in the Women’s Nations League final.

This latest German win means that within a generation, from 2006 to 2029, the country will have hosted men’s and women’s World Cups for FIFA and men’s and women’s Euros for UEFA.

Switzerland set a tournament record attendance hosting a popular and successful Euro 2025 in July with total crowds of more than 650,000 at an average of 21,000 per game.

Germany expects to draw more than one million spectators in its much bigger stadiums also in Cologne, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hanover, Leipzig and Wolfsburg.

“We think we can fill the stadiums because women’s football has had such a great development in the last few years,” German bid leader Heike Ullrich said.

UEFA’s strategy for women

A German-hosted Women’s Euros can aim to make a profit after UEFA budgeted to subsidize the more intimate Swiss-hosted tournament with 25 million euros ($29.1 million).

“It is a tournament of a massive scale in ’29 that Germany can offer,” UEFA director of women’s soccer Nadine Kessler told The Associated Press. “That is exactly what we want to take advantage of — to properly put women’s football globally on the map.”

Euro 2029 will slot between the last 32-team Women’s World Cup hosted by Brazil in 2027, and the first 48-team edition in 2031 hosted mostly in the United States.

“We will be on par with World Cups,” said Kessler, a former Germany national-team standout. “Financially but also sportingly, all these prejudices we have been facing for many, many years I think they will be wiped away by ’29.”

Scandinavians denied again

The Denmark-Sweden bid offered a similar level of sold-out smaller stadiums while Poland looked to speed its progress toward being a women’s soccer power in Europe.

With the Women’s Euros expected to be a 24-team tournament in future, Germany also was seen as a safe bet after that expansion which would be a greater challenge to the other bidders Wednesday.

Sweden and Denmark narrowly lost a hosting vote for the 2025 edition to a surprise Swiss win when their bid had been joined by Finland and Norway in a more scattered four-nation Nordic project.

“It is hard to think about that right now,” Swedish soccer federation president Simon Åström said about a possible third straight bid for 2033 which likely will be for 24 teams. “We believed we had a very strong bid but we also know the competition this time was very tough.”

It is unclear if UEFA could yet fast-track that expansion for the 2029 edition in Germany.

___

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer