To successfully host the Euro Cup From June 14th to July 14th, Germany can count on the legacy of the 2006 World Cup, with its modern and always full stadiums, but with great concern about security, in the midst of a tense geopolitical context.
Legacy of 2006
The last time Germany hosted a major football tournament was in 2006, with a World Cup very well organized by Franz Beckenbauer and five weeks of festive atmosphere across the country.
For this World Cup, many stadiums were extensively renovated, including the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, built for the 1936 Games and whose work lasted four years (2000 to 2004) to modernize the stage for the final, where Italy defeated France on penalties.
Other stadiums were built from scratch, such as the Allianz Arena in northern Munich, which has been Bayern’s home since the 2005/2006 season.
In six days’ time, the Bavarian stadium will be the epicenter of European football when the opening game between Germany and Scotland takes place there.
These stadiums were the great legacy left by the World Cup and, almost two decades later, of the ten venues for the 51 European Cup games, nine hosted World Cup games.
Only Düsseldorf makes this list, of course, with a stadium built between 2002 and 2004 and which is one of the most modern in Germany. The only venue to have undergone major renovation was Stuttgart, with the renovation of the lower part of the main stand completed in early 2024.
Half of the Eurocup stadiums belong to teams currently playing in the German second division, which doesn’t stop them from being full every weekend.
In total, 2.7 million spectators are expected in stadiums whose capacity has been slightly reduced, as UEFA does not allow standing places, something that German football has experienced since the 2022/2023 season. Thus, Borussia Dortmund’s stadium will go from the usual 81,365 seats to 62,000.
Priority number 1
At the head of the organization, the former captain of the 2014 world champions, Philipp Lahm, didn’t have to worry too much about the infrastructure, but there is another issue that brings a lot of headaches: “From the beginning, security is a matter of our great precautions,” Lahm said in an interview with AFP in March.
In addition to the 2.7 million visitors with tickets to the games, Germany is preparing to receive 12 million people in ‘fan zones’, those places where fans gather in the host cities to watch the games on giant screens.
Experts from each participating country will help German authorities, Europol and UEFA to monitor and coordinate security measures from a huge 500 m2 conference room, equipped with 129 computers and a gigantic 40 m² big screen in the Cooperation Center (IPCC) in Neuss (west).
Ready for EURO 2024! 🤩#EURO2024 pic.twitter.com/Fb7WEdgJff
— UEFA EURO 2024 (@EURO2024) March 26, 2024
Security around the ten stadiums that will host the games will be provided by a contingent of 800 to 1,300 security forces agents. In addition, there will be checkpoints at German borders during the tournament and joint patrols by French gendarmes and German federal police will monitor the Paris-Stuttgart and Paris-Frankfurt routes.
“Major sporting events are always potential targets for terrorist attacks,” says Johannes Saal, a security expert at the University of Lucerne, describing the current geopolitical situation as “very tense” due to the war in Gaza and the ever-present jihadist threat.
“We have been talking abstractly about a major threat for years, but there is no concrete indication of an attack,” said Berlin police chief Barbara Slowik during a presentation of the security device for the tournament in mid-May. Threats “are taken seriously and verified with international partners,” she added.
Source: Gazetaesportiva
Kingston is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his in-depth and engaging writing on sports. He currently works as a writer at 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the sports industry.
