The 2024 European Championship is sure to be the most talked about event in a year packed with major football tournaments.
Starting in June, Germany will host the UEFA competition, which is held every four years to decide the European champions.
The UEFA Executive Committee, held in Nyon on 27 September 2018, decided to host the 17th UEFA European Championship in Germany. Turkey was the only country to submit a proposal to host Euro 2024.
This tournament was previously held in 1988, but this will be Germany's first UEFA European Championship since reunification. Moreover, this country hosted his 2006 World Cup.
Who will participate in Euro 2024?
Due to its status as host country, Germany automatically qualified for the event. The top two in each group of 10 directly earned 20 spots.
Meanwhile, the top three spots in each of the remaining three groups were filled through playoffs.
The top teams that did not make it through the regular qualifying rounds in the 2022-23 UEFA Nations League will qualify for the 2024 Euro Playoffs. The UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying group stage draw was held on October 9, 2022 at the Festhalle in Frankfurt, Germany.
Of the 24 teams eligible to participate, 19 are returning from the previous tournament. This group consists of the following teams: Italy (current champions), England (runners-up), France (World Cup runners-up) and Croatia (bronze medalist).
With the exception of Portugal, no team qualified with a perfect record. Despite this, France, England, Belgium, Hungary and Romania all qualified undefeated.
Despite missing out on Euro 2020, Albania and Romania both achieved victories. Albania qualified for their second international tournament. For the first time since Euro 2000, both Serbia and Slovenia returned to the competition.
Slovenia has qualified for its fourth major tournament as an independent nation. Meanwhile, Serbia has qualified for the tournament for the first time since Serbia and Montenegro became separate entities.
After gaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Georgia qualified for its first tournament with a penalty shootout victory over Greece. They are also the only newcomers to the event this year for the first time, continuing a trend that started with the first final in 1960.
Who will miss Euro 2024?
Countries such as Russia, Wales, and Sweden are conspicuously absent. Not only did Sweden fail to reach the final, they also failed to qualify for the 2022 World Cup or Euro 1996. This means Sweden will miss out on a second consecutive major tournament.
Russia was immediately disqualified from participating in the qualifying round after invading Ukraine. Prior to that, the country had been regulars in the final since Euro 2000. This is the first time a national team has been disqualified from the tournament since the 1992 Yugoslav incident.
Wales, who had reached the semi-finals in both competitions so far, lost to Poland in the play-offs on penalties. Finland and North Macedonia both participated in the previous tournament for the first time, but were unable to participate this time.
All teams for Euro 2024
- Germany
- Belgium
- France
- Portugal
- Spain
- Scotland
- Turkiye
- Austria
- England
- Hungary
- Slovakia
- Albania
- Denmark
- Netherlands
- Romania
- Switzerland
- Serbia
- Italy
- czech
- Slovenia
- Croatia
- georgia
- ukraine
- Poland
Photo credit: IMAGO / Eibner