Northern Switzerland The countdown to the Women's European Football Championship in Basel begins
On July 2, 2025, the opening match of the Women's European Football Championship in Switzerland will kick off in Basel. At a media conference on Tuesday, those responsible for the Host City Basel reported on the status of the preparations, their high expectations and the hoped-for sustainability in promoting women's sport.
25.06.2024, 12:20
SDA
The media conference took place at a location steeped in history: UEFA was founded 70 years ago in Basel's Hotel Euler near the SBB train station, as Sabine Horvath, overall project manager of Host City Basel at UEFA Women's Euro 2025, said.
Her expectations for the event, which will begin on July 2, 2025 with the opening match in Basel and end on the 27th of the month with the final match there, are high. Based on the experience of the last European Women's Championship in England in 2022, Horvath is expecting 700,000 tickets to be sold throughout Switzerland.
At the European Championships, 16 teams will play 31 matches in eight cities. Basel will host five of them. Hosting the matches is worth CHF 12.9 million to the canton.
A year before the kick-off, the European Championships should leave visible traces in Basel. For example, the Centralbahnplatz has already been flagged accordingly. On July 2, the countdown clock will be activated at the Kleinbasel head of the Mittlere Brücke next to Bettina Eichin's "Helvetia". On the same day, a women's football streetcar will be christened and a soccer court will be inaugurated on Messeplatz.
Basel-Stadt wants to set an example for women's football beyond the tournament. Steve Beutler, Head of the Basel Sports Office, listed a whole catalog of promotional measures at the media conference. The aim is to double the number of licensed female footballers, he said.
