100 days before the European Championships in Germany: Be careful, construction site!

As of: March 5, 2024 11:53 p.m

On Wednesday (March 6th, 2024) there are still exactly 100 days until the opening game of the European Championship between Germany and Scotland. Despite the short time until the start, it’s not just the euphoria that’s missing.

The countdown is running – and while it does that, a lot still has to happen to make the 2024 European Championship in Germany a well-rounded football festival. On Wednesday there are only 100 days until the opening game between Germany and Scotland kicks off in Munich on June 14th. But so far the tournament is more of a construction site than a summer fairy tale 2.0. Sportschau.de shows the important questions that are still open.

When will all participants be determined?

Almost three months before the start, three teams that will be at the European Championships still don’t know anything about their luck. The last three EURO tickets will be awarded in the playoffs, with the finals taking place on March 26th. This also means: Either the nations are currently planning their stay in Germany without really knowing that they are even taking part, or they have to organize everything in a flash after they have passed the playoffs: accommodation, travel to the venues and much more.

After all, the other 21 teams already know their processes. The game plan is clear, the game dates and locations are fixed, as are the training centers of the nations that have already qualified. You will also have already organized how to get from A to B. But: This question has not yet been clarified among the fans.

How do spectators get to the stadiums?

The start of the year in Germany is marked by strikes in various sectors. What is particularly crucial for the EM is the lack of collective bargaining agreements for ground staff at airports, for train drivers at Deutsche Bahn and in local transport. Mobility is currently being severely restricted – and if the respective negotiations continue to drag on, this could also be the case at the European Championships.

The consequences are extremely problematic, especially for viewers who have traveled from abroad; they can only switch to their car in the rarest of cases. And the taxi alternative could become a cost trap; in Berlin, companies recently raised prices when local transport was paralyzed by the Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG).

UEFO EURO 2024 Match Schedule

Berlin alone is expecting 2.5 million visitors to the EM, and the Federal Environment Agency has developed a sustainable mobility concept for this. The goal: to focus transport on buses and trains due to the low emissions. But this is only possible if they actually drive. It would be all the more annoying for viewers that the mobility concept also includes making travel by car less attractive. For this purpose, among other things, parking fees will be increased and the number of parking spaces available will be limited.

If you can’t make it to the stadium or don’t even want to: The Sportschau delivers a big package around the European Championships. Among other things, there are tickers and audio streams for all games, 17 games will be shown live on Erste and in the live stream on sportschau.de.

When will the stadiums be ready?

UEFA has clear requirements for the host cities and therefore practically all stadiums have to be partially rebuilt. The example in Stuttgart shows how problematic this can be. 65 million euros were budgeted for, among other things, the renovation of the main stand, but the actual costs are said to be twice as high. In principle, all venues receive a subsidy from UEFA, but it is far from covering their costs.

Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faden recently asserted that she was “very confident that both Stuttgart and other venues in the host cities will meet the requirements by March.” The stadiums are removed there. But: They are still not finished. FC Bayern, for example, announced that “numerous renovation measures in and around the stadium” will only be carried out after the last Bundesliga home game against VfL Wolfsburg (May 10th to 12th).

Are there still tickets?

Two sales phases have been completed and the majority of tickets are sold out. As UEFA announced, “there may be other options for purchasing tickets”, but details have not yet been announced. There will also be a re-sale platform from March, for which the exact start date is not yet known.

Officially, UEFA is still selling 10,000 tickets for the games involving the teams that have yet to qualify through the playoffs. With nine games in which these teams take part, a total of 90,000 tickets are still available – but mainly from the respective nations. However, there could be other options due to returns (e.g. unpaid tickets).

What does the DFB team’s schedule look like?

Next Thursday (March 14, 2024) national coach Julian Nagelsmann will present his squad for the games in France (March 23) and against the Netherlands (March 26) – it is already clear that there will be some newcomers among them. Accordingly, there are still several vacancies in the European Championship squad, which will probably be tentatively announced in May. The DFB must have informed UEFA which 23 players will actually be there at the end by June 7th at 11:59 p.m. at the latest.

Before that, the DFB team’s last training camp will take place in Blankenhain (Thuringia) from May 26th. There will be two more test games before the start of the European Championship on June 14th.

When will the national team present its new jersey?

The European Championship ball with the name “Football Love” has been presented, the mascot, a teddy bear, has been given the name “Albärt” – but what about the jersey that tens of thousands of people wore in the stands at the opening game in Munich and the players on the will carry lawn? The new jersey is scheduled to be presented in March.

“Albärt” is the official mascot of the 2024 UEFA European Championship in Germany.

But there are already the first supposed leaks that want to show what the new jerseys look like. The home jersey should be white with a black, red and gold pattern on the shoulders, while the away jersey should be less classic pink and purple.

Where is the EM mood?

The EURO is starting soon – but there is no sign of it yet. The fans are still very busy with everyday league life and the cities have so far refrained from any marketing campaigns. But that’s not necessarily unusual 100 days before the start of the tournament. Even before the summer fairy tale of 2006, the mood only arose when the fan miles were set up, the league was over and the fans arrived from other countries.

National coach Julian Nagelsmann runs past the European Championship trophy.

And things only really became euphoric during the tournament, when Jürgen Klinsmann and his team gave the home fans hope of a successful event in their own country with a good start. According to the national team’s most recent results, this is still completely missing. One of the biggest and most important tasks for Nagelsmann is to get Germany interested in this European Championship and to get the entire country behind him.