UEFA Euro 2024: When it Starts, Where it is Taking Place, Which Teams Are Participating

(EURO 2024 Title in a frame)

After 4 years, football fans are set to witness the UEFA European Football Championship, in short, the UEFA EURO 2024 and it will be the tournament that will decide the ultimate champion from Europe. Coming in as the 17th edition of the tournament, the 2024 season will be organised in Germany from 14th June 2024, and this one-month will finally end on 14th July 2024 at Olympiastadion Berlin where the winning team will lift the trophy. The Euro Cup 2024 tournament will be having a total of 24 teams, and Georgia will be making its debut in the European Championship. This marks the third time European Championship matches will be held on German soil and the second time in reunified Germany.

All major cities in Germany have been allotted the matches of the EURO 2024. With the EURO 2024 football coming here, stadiums such as Fußball Arena München, Arena AufSchalke, Frankfurt Arena, Düsseldorf Arena, and others are getting ready. In this blog, we will be listing all the relevant information regarding the European Cup 2024 like the total teams, venues, format of the tournament, and much more here.

Stage of Qualification and Entry of Teams to Euro 2024

Talking about the teams of the EURO Cup 2024, the UEFA Euro 2024 Germany became the automatic qualification for the tournament. The remaining 23 spots were filled through a rigorous qualification process where a total of 53 teams participated. All the national teams were categorized into six seeding pots for the Euro 2024 qualifiers, determined by their overall ranking in the 2022-23 UEFA Nations League after the league phase concluded.

The top four teams that made it to the 2023 Nations League Finals were placed in a special pot called the UNL Pot. These teams were then assigned to Group A-D, with each group having five teams. This allowed those top teams to have eight qualifying matches, while also reserving two match days for the Nations League Finals in June 2023. The next six highest-ranked teams were put into Pot 1. If Germany had won their Nations League group, the UNL Pot would have had only three teams, and Pot 1 would have expanded to include seven teams instead of six.

(EURO 2024 Qualifiers teams)

Pots 2 through 5 each contained ten teams, while Pot 6 had the three lowest-ranked teams UEFA then conducted a draw to place these teams into ten different qualifying groups. Seven of these groups (Groups A-G) had five teams each, while the remaining three groups (Groups H-J) had six teams apiece. From the UNL Pot and Pot 1 first the draw was started and followed by teams from Pots 2 to 6.

Qualified teams

Twenty teams earned their berths by finishing as winners or runners-up in their respective groups during the qualifying tournament. The final three places were determined by play-offs, which featured the best-performing teams from the 2022-23 UEFA Nations League who had not already qualified through the main qualification rounds. For the UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying groups, the draw took place on October 9, 2022, at the Festhalle in Frankfurt. The group stage of qualification was held from March to November 2023, followed by the decisive play-offs in March 2024. The list of the teams that qualified are listed below:

Germany	France
Belgium	Portugal
Spain	Scotland
Turkey	Austria
England	Hungary
Slovakia	Albania
Denmark	Netherlands
Romania	Switzerland
Serbia	Czech Republic
Italy	Slovenia
Croatia	Ukraine
Georgia	Poland

Group stage

With the end of the EURO Qualifiers 2024, the UEFA got the deserving 24 teams and now the main task was to get them in the groups and this was to be done by the Final Draw. On December 2, 2023, the draw which was the final one for the Euro 2024 tournament took place at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg at 18:00 CET. The teams were seeded based on their overall rankings from the European Qualifiers. As the host nation, Germany was automatically placed in Pot 1 and assigned the position A1. At the time of the draw, the identities of the three play-off winners, set to be determined in March 2024, were still unknown and hence, the teams competing in those play-offs were provisionally placed in Pot 4.

• The seeding for the draw was structured with Pot 1 including Germany and the top five group winners.
• Pot 2 has the next five group winners and the team with the highest-ranked runner-up position.
• Pot 3 contained the group runners-up ranked from 2 to 7.
• Pot 4 included the remaining group runners-up alongside the three play-off winners.

After the Pot system, all 24 teams were divided into Groups each of four teams and once the playoffs ended, the fans got a clear picture of the groups present. These are as follows:

(EURO 2024 Qualified teams)

Group A

In the first Group of the tournament, a total of four teams were placed which started with Germany as the host nation. The other three teams are Scotland, Hungary, and Switzerland which makes the group competitive.

Position	Team
A1	Germany
A2	Scotland
A3	Hungary
A4	Switzerland

Group B

In the Group of the European Cup 2024, the council has placed three strong teams such as Croatia, Spain, and Italy. It looks to be a tight group and one of these three nations might suffer an early exit in the tournament.

Position	Team
B1	Spain
B2	Croatia
B3	Italy
B4	Albania

Group C

From Group C of the Euro Cup 2024, the four teams present will be looking forward to making it to the next round, and for teams like Slovenia and Serbia, the challenge will be against Denmark and the England team.

Position	Team
C1	Slovenia
C2	Denmark
C3	Serbia
C4	England

Group D

Coming to Group D of the tournament, the Netherlands and France have the chance to get to the top of the table as they have the desired lineups. For Poland and Austria, things are going to be challenging for them.

Position	Team
D1	Poland
D2	Netherlands
D3	Austria
D4	France

Group E

In Group E, all four teams are capable of making it to the next round and hence things will be interesting in this group. Belgium looks to be the team that has got the chance to finish at the top here.

Position	Team
E1	Belgium
E2	Slovakia
E3	Romania
E4	Ukraine

Group F

In the last Group of the Euro Cup 2024, Portugal has been placed with the other 3 teams such as Turkey, Georgia, and the Czech Republic. For the other three teams, defeating Portugal will be a challenging task.

Position	Team
F1	Turkey
F2	Georgia
F3	Portugal
F4	Czech Republic

Choosing a Venue for Euro 2024

It was the year 2017 when Germany and Turkey came forward to host the UEFA EURO 2024. The selection process would be overseen by the UEFA Executive Committee, employing a confidential ballot to determine the host nation. Seventeen committee members were enlisted to participate in the decision-making process and Germany got 12 votes while Turkey was awarded just 4 votes which eventually meant that Germany got the final result in their favour. Germany was awarded the hosting rights because of the reasons such as:

• First off, Germany has amazing stadiums and facilities that are ready to host the best teams and fans from across Europe. They proved they could handle massive sporting events when they hosted the 2006 World Cup without any major issues.
• But Germany offers more than just great stadiums and logistics. The country has such a rich football culture and history. German fans are incredibly passionate about the game.

Finally, Germany's location in central Europe and its focus on security allows fans to easily travel and attend matches safely.

Cities Where Euro 2024 Will be Held

Once Germany got the hosting rights of the EURO CUP 2024, it was time to decide the venues and the stadiums to be used for hosting the matches. Since Germany had the experience of hosting the 2006 FIFA World Cup, the organization decided to introduce the same venues with a minimum requirement of 30,000 fans capacity. Seeing this, a total of 10 stadiums finally got the approval and the list has been given below:

(Olympiastadion Berlin, which will host EURO 2024 matches)

Name of the City	Name of the Stadium	Seating Capacity
Berlin	Olympiastadion Berlin	70,033
Munich	Fußball Arena München	66,026
Dortmund	Westfalenstadion	61,524
Stuttgart	Stuttgart Arena	50,998
Hamburg	Volksparkstadion	50,215
Düsseldorf	Düsseldorf Arena	46,264
Leipzig	Leipzig Stadium	46,635
Cologne	Cologne Stadium	46,922
Frankfurt	Frankfurt Arena	48,057
Gelsenkirchen	Arena AufSchalke	49,471

For the duration of the Euro 2024 tournament, every participating nation will establish a dedicated "team base camp" within the boundaries of Germany. These chosen locations will serve as the perfect location of operations for each squad, providing a spot for them to reside, train, and relax between the intense battles on the pitch.

Name of the Team	Name of the Base camp	Name of the Training ground
Albania	Kamen	SportCentrum Kaiserau
Austria	Berlin	Mommsenstadion
Belgium	Ludwigsburg	Wasenstadion, SGV Freiberg am Neckar
Croatia	Neuruppin	Volksparkstadion, MSV Neuruppin
Czech Republic	Hamburg	Edmund-Plambeck-Stadion, FC Eintracht Norderstedt 03
Denmark	Freudenstadt	Hermann-Saam-Stadion
England	Blankenhain	Golfresort Weimarer Land
France	Bad Lippspringe	Home Deluxe Arena, SC Paderborn 07
Georgia	Velbert	Stadion Velbert, SSVg Velbert
Germany	Herzogenaurach	Adidas Campus/HomeGround
Hungary	Weiler-Simmerberg	Tannenhof Resort, Sport & Spa
Italy	Iserlohn	Hemberg-Stadion
Netherlands	Wolfsburg	AOK Stadion, VfL Wolfsburg (women)
Poland	Hanover	Eilenriedestadion
Portugal	Harsewinkel	Hotel-Residence Klosterpforte Marienfeld / Sports grounds
Romania	Würzburg	Akon Arena, FC Würzburger Kickers
Scotland	Garmisch-Partenkirchen	Stadion am Gröben
Serbia	Augsburg	Rosenaustadion, FC Augsburg (Women)
Slovakia	Mainz	Bruchwegstadion, 1. FSV Mainz 05
Slovenia	Wuppertal	Stadion am Zoo, Wuppertaler SV
Spain	Donaueschingen	Der Öschberghof
Switzerland	Stuttgart	Gazi-Stadion auf der Waldau
Turkey	Barsinghausen	Sporthotel Fuchsbachtal
Ukraine	Wiesbaden

Knockout stage

With the end of the 36th match of the tournament, the League Stage will provide the fans with 16 teams out of the 24. The top two teams out of all the groups will advance to the Knockout stage while 6 teams from each group that finish in the third position will end at the Possible knockout stage based on ranking where only the top 4 teams will qualify for the next round. Each round will be an elimination-based round here and it is divided into four stages:

(EURO 2024 Trophy along with a Football)

1. Round of 16
2. Quarter-finals
3. Semi-finals
4. Finals

In the knockout round, the teams will be allowed to compete in the extra time too where each half will be 15 minutes. However, if the score still remains the same, the winner will be decided by the penalty shoot-out.

Bracket

After the exciting group stage, the Euro 2024 tournament will move into the knockout rounds. This stage will follow a bracket format to determine which teams advance towards the final championship match. The bracket will be set up like a tournament chart, showing all the potential matchups. As teams win each round, their next opponents get revealed based on the other results. The bracket provides a clear visual path, allowing fans to easily follow along and see what matchups are still to come. As the rounds go by, the bracket will fill up with results, building excitement as teams edge closer to glory.

Round of 16

As decided after the League stage, a total of 16 teams out of the 24 will advance to the next stage of the tournament which is the knockout stage, and every team losing here will be out of the tournament. From the 8 matches of the Round of 16 which will take place from 29th June 2024 to 2nd July 2024, a total of 8 teams will advance to the next round of the tournament while the rest 8 teams that end up on the losing side will be knocked out of the tournament.

Quarter-Finals

After the 8 teams qualify for the Quarter-Finals, they will be divided into 4 matches each and here again, it’s an elimination round that will be played from 5th July 2024 to 6th July 2024. As the tournament enters its decisive stage, every match becomes a pivotal moment, determining the fate of each team.

Semi-Finals

With the end of the Quarter-Finals, the action now moves to the Semi-Finals of the tournament where the top 4 teams will meet from 9th July 2024 to 10th July 2024. At the Stadiums of Munich and Dortmund, the Semi-Finals 1 and Semi-Finals 2 would take place respectively. The excitement will be at the top at this stage because all four teams will be here after battling out the odds.

Finals

The iconic Olympiastadion in Berlin will host the massive Euro 2024 final on Sunday, July 14th, 2024. This is the huge match that every team dreams of reaching. After battling through the group stage and knockout rounds, the two best squads will meet for an epic championship showdown. All eyes around the world will be on this decisive match in Berlin. Both finalists will pour their hearts out on the pitch, determined to capture football's ultimate European glory.