The tournament organizer of the 2025 Women’s European Football Championship will be chosen on Tuesday in Lisbon, Portugal. Finland has applied for the Games together with Sweden, Denmark and Norway and is fighting for the hosting of the Games with Switzerland, France and Poland.
Development Manager of the Football Association Heidi Pihlaja has been working as part of the Nordic working group for months to ensure that the European Championships would also be played in Helsinki and Tampere.
– Of course, we think that we are the best candidate and we strongly believe that the UEFA board should vote for us as competition organizers. We have done everything we can and in that way we are confident and proud of the proposal that has been submitted to UEFA, Pihlaja talks.
In Sweden, the games would be played in Stockholm and Gothenburg, Denmark in Copenhagen and Odense, and Norway in Oslo and Trondheim.
Originally, the Nordic countries wanted the 2027 World Championships, but the plans were frozen in 2021. In October 2021, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway announced that they would apply for the European Championships together, although initially only Denmark was interested in organizing them.
Pihlaja believes that the Nordic countries would even see the all-time women’s European Championships.
– We strongly believe and even promise that we will organize the biggest women’s European Championships ever. In England, the games were already huge, but we believe that with our application it would be possible to take the games to a new level and fill the stands. We have optimized the match cities in such a way that we believe it is possible for us to sell out the stands at every match.
If the Nordic countries get the European Championships to organize, the goal is to sell more than 800,000 tickets. The EC final would be played at the Solna football stadium.
Finland, Norway, Denmark and Sweden all played in last summer’s European Championships. Sweden went the farthest, losing 0–4 to England, who won the championship, in the semi-finals. Denmark, which played in the “group of death” with Finland, remained in the first group like Finland, because it took its only victory from Helmari. The games were a huge disappointment for Norway, as the country was left in the initial group. Piloted Norway for more than five years Martin Sjögren left his position after the EC disappointment. He was replaced Hege Riise.
Uefa has previously defined that a maximum of two tournament organizers could get a place in the tournament.
– One option we have put on the table is that everyone would participate in the qualifiers and then see if anyone stays on the beach, Pihlaja told earlier.
Interest and sustainable development as themes
Pihlaja believes that the advantage of the Nordic countries’ application is not only the Nordic countries’ interest in women’s football, but also responsibility.
– We believe that we have a lot to give to the Europeans and the whole world’s football family, how to organize a major sports event in a responsible and sustainable way, Pihlaja sees.
Also the head coach of Helmarei Marko Saloranta hopes that the games would be brought to Finland.
– It would be a big deal, although after all, it hasn’t been long since the last Games in Finland… The next Games were in Sweden. Of course, they have good experiences of how competitions are organized in Finland and Sweden. When I was able to be in the coaching team in 2009, when Finland played the last time, it was something completely incomprehensible, Saloranta recalls.
In that case, Finland played its first group match at the Olympic Stadium: against Denmark and the Netherlands, there were more than 16,000 spectators in the stands, and more than 15,000 watched the match against Ukraine as well.
In the semifinals, Finland faced England at the sold-out Kupittaa football stadium.
Switzerland, Poland and France have never organized a women’s European Championship. However, Poland organized the men’s European Championships together with Ukraine in 2012, Switzerland with Austria in 2008 and France in 2016. In 2019, the women’s World Cup final tournament was played in France.
The selection of the organizer of the European Championships has already been moved forward a few times. The race organizer will be chosen in Portugal on Tuesday, April 4.