Opening game in Munich: The final of the EM 2024 goes to Berlin
Opening game in Munich
The final of the EM 2024 goes to Berlin
May 10, 2022, 5:07 p.m
The 2024 European Football Championship in Germany is still a good two years away. But the timetable is in place. The Berlin Olympic Stadium is awarded the contract for the final on July 14, 2024. The opening game on June 14 goes to Munich.
Everything like 2006. The Berlin Olympic Stadium has been awarded the contract for the final of the 2024 European Championship. The roof of the stadium is also part of the logo for the first European Championship since 1988 in Germany and thus also the first European Championship in the reunified country. The Executive Committee of the European Football Union UEFA awarded the opening game to Munich.
‘United by Football. United in the heart of Europe’ is the slogan for the tournament, which has yet to decide whether Russia will have a chance to qualify. The Russian national team is currently banned from participating in UEFA competitions until further notice because of the war of aggression against Ukraine. The home tournament is scheduled to be played between June 14th and July 14th with 24 teams.
The decision in favor of the Berlin Olympic Stadium is the opposite of a surprise, as the venue in the capital is considered the most important venue for finals. “As a sports metropolis, we are simply the city that is best suited to shine internationally for such an event,” said the Governing Mayor of the capital, Franziska Giffey, the day before the final venue was announced. Berlin, she added, is a “cosmopolitan city with a heart.”
Das Logo der EM 2024.
(Photo: dpa)
The “German Wembley”
The DFB Cup final has also been held here since 1985. For political reasons, the Olympic Stadium was then declared the permanent venue for the prestigious competition. After the successful application for the 1988 European Championships, the Federal Republic had to give up the venue due to the situation at the time.
To compensate, the cup final migrated to the then divided city, only for just five years, but with the fall of the wall and the increasing popularity of the venue, it stayed in the capital for the time being. The Olympic Stadium, which currently has a capacity of 74,475 spectators, has since been known as the “German Wembley” and was the venue for the final match between Italy and France at the 2006 World Cup. In 2015, the stadium built for the 1936 Olympic Games also hosted the Champions League final between FC Barcelona and Juventus Turin.
Celebrated as the final venue, the Olympic Stadium is viewed critically in the Bundesliga. Anchor tenant Hertha BSC has been trying to build its own stadium on the Olympic site for years. The still Bundesliga club does not consider the stadium to be suitable for a variety of reasons. It is one of the last top division stadiums in Europe with a running track and due to its capacity it rarely sells out for league matches.
In addition to Berlin and Munich, the stadiums in Dortmund, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Cologne, Gelsenkirchen, Düsseldorf, Leipzig and Stuttgart are also planned as venues for the European Championship. Only Düsseldorf was not a venue during the 2006 World Cup.
