LISBON (Reuters) -Switzerland will host the 2025 Women’s European Championship, European soccer’s governing body UEFA said on Tuesday.
Switzerland last hosted a major soccer tournament in 2008, staging that year’s edition of the men’s Euros along with neighbours Austria.
“This is a historic day for Switzerland, the SFA and women’s football,” Swiss FA president Dominique Blanc said in a statement.
“This major step will shape the development of women’s football at all levels.”
The Swiss FA said it would set up a body responsible for the organisation of the event, adding that the “first workshops and visits to the venues with UEFA are already planned for April and May”.
“The tournament will take place over four weeks in June and July 2025 at the planned venues of Basel, Bern, Geneva, Zurich, St. Gallen, Sion, Lucerne and Thun,” the Swiss FA said.
“The existing infrastructure will be used (or, as in the case of the turf base in Thun and Berne, modified) and the construction of additional stadiums, hotels or training grounds is not necessary according to the current state of knowledge.”
In October, UEFA said it had received four bids to host the tournament, including bids from France and Poland as well as a joint bid from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.
The Nordic bid provided the strongest competition to Switzerland, making it to the UEFA Executive Committee’s final round of voting, where it received four votes to Switzerland’s nine.
“We believe we submitted a good application with a clear plan on how to create the best Euros ever,” Norwegian Football Federation president Lise Klaveness said.
“We always knew that the competition would be tough, and we can only congratulate Switzerland who came away with the victory.”
Ukraine had also expressed interest in hosting the event before the Russian invasion.
The previous edition of the tournament was held in England in 2022, where the hosts won the title after beating Germany in the final at Wembley Stadium.
Last year’s tournament, which was postponed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, had a projected global cumulative live viewership of 365 million, while a record crowd of 87,192 were at Wembley for the final.
Germany are the most successful team in the history of the competition, having lifted the title on eight occasions.
(Reporting by Aadi Nair and Philip O’Connor;Editing by Christian Radnedge)
