Switzerland will organize the 2025 women’s European football championships – the Nordic countries’ application was lost

The joint application of the Nordic countries did not win the competition for the 2025 European Championships. The competitions are held in Switzerland.

Switzerland will organize the 2025 women’s European football championships. The European football association Uefa decided on the organizing body on Tuesday in Lisbon.

Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Norway applied for the Games together, as well as Switzerland, France and Poland with their own applications.

The one who led the Swiss project Marion Dauben by (you switch to another service) the strengths of the country’s application were a stable and safe environment, infrastructure with modern stadiums and short distances.

President of the Norwegian Football Association Lise Klaeveness liked (you switch to another service) Switzerland’s application in advance as the Nordic countries’ worst competitor.

– We have good opportunities. I think the situation is 50–50, Klaeveness said before the selection.

Sports culture at the top of the Nordic application

Finland played a key role in the joint application of the Nordic countries. The entire application process was led by the head of Pallloiito’s event function Kalle Marttinenwho also presented the countries’ offer to UEFA in Lisbon.

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.

According to the president of the Norwegian Football Association, Ari Lahti, the strength of the Nordic countries’ application was the possibility to fill the stadiums in every match.

– Our system was designed in such a way that each country would play one initial block. In each country, the host country would be one of the teams in the group, so at least these matches would probably be sold out, Lahti said.

According to Lahti, the sport’s position in the Nordic countries also set the application apart from the others.

– Women’s football in the Nordic countries is clearly ahead of other applicant countries if you think about the sport’s popularity, appreciation and traditions.

For example, in Sweden, as many as 33,218 spectators witnessed when the women’s national team met Brazil last summer at the Friends Arena in Solna. In Denmark, the Brazil match attracted 21,542 fans to the stands.

Finland organized the Women’s European Championship in 2009. In that case, Finland played its first group match at the Olympic Stadium: against Denmark and Holland, the audience in the stands was more than 16,000, and the match against Ukraine was watched by more than 15,000.

In the semifinals, Finland met England at the sold-out Kupittaa football stadium in Turku. England won the match 3–2 and advanced to the final. Germany celebrated the championship.

Switzerland has not organized the Women’s European Championships before.