New standards have been set for sustainability at the Women's European Football Championship in Switzerland 2025. This is an integral part of modern tournaments, as UEFA and the Swiss Football Association announced to the media on Tuesday.
24.02.2026, 17:00
24.02.2026, 17:42
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- According to UEFA and the SFA, the European Women's Championship 2025 in Switzerland set new standards in terms of sustainability and firmly anchored environmental and social goals in the tournament concept.
- The majority of the approximately 600,000 fans traveled to the tournament in a climate-friendly manner.
- With the "Spirit of Football" strategy and a targeted "Legacy Program", the SFA wants to further strengthen women's football and introduce a licensing system from 2026.
He wanted to talk about more than football today, said Peter Knäbel, President of the Swiss Football Association (SFA) - "it's about the future of our sport." Under the premise of sustainability, the European Football Association (Uefa) and the SFA hosted a media conference. Following the Women's EURO 2025, Uefa presented the results of its sustainability report and the SFA presented its "Spirit of Football" sustainability strategy.
Uefa had set itself almost four dozen goals and a hundred measures in advance: Environmental emissions were to be reduced, protection safeguarded and rights promoted.
Transportation causes particularly high CO2 emissions, which is why many measures were taken in the area of mobility, said Filippo Veglio, the person responsible for sustainability at Uefa. Two thirds of spectators had traveled to the stadium by public transport, while twenty percent had arrived on foot or by bicycle.
In total, the approximately 600,000 spectators caused around 27,708 tons of CO2 emissions. There are no comparative figures for the Women's European Championship in England. In future, however, the figures from Switzerland should serve as a guide. "The journey continues for us," said Veglio. For example, at the 2029 European Championships in Germany.
Licensing planned
The fantastic fan march in Bern last summer showed what an important milestone the Women's EURO is, Veglio continued. The SFA's sustainability strategy, the "Spirit of Football", is therefore also intended to attract significantly more girls and women to football.
With the "Legacy Program" in particular, the SFA wants to attract women to football. The goals that "Legacy" has set itself are ambitious, admitted women's football director Marion Daube to the media. While the number of female coaches and referees could be significantly increased each year, there is still room for improvement in terms of players. Specifically, there are currently 42,828 licensed female footballers, 14% more than at the start of Legacy. However, the target is 80,000 female players. Whether this will be achieved by 2027 seems questionable.
The numbers of female coaches (target: 4,750 / actual: 2,921), referees (target: 238 / actual: 167) and officials (target: 698 / actual: 439) have risen by 30% or more across the board. Daube is therefore confident that the ambitious targets in these areas will also be achieved. Measures are currently underway to improve the quality of Swiss women's football and set standards. For example, a licensing system similar to the SFL is to be introduced in 2026.
