UEFA Euro 2024 facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
UEFA Euro 2024

Fußball-Europameisterschaft 2024 '
United by Football. Vereint im Herzen Europas. (United in the heart of Europe.)
Tournament details
Host country	Germany
Dates	14 June – 14 July
Teams	24
Venue(s)	10 (in 10 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Spain (4th title)
Runners-up	England
Tournament statistics
Matches played	51
Goals scored	117 (2.29 per match)
Attendance	2,681,288 (52,574 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Six players (3 goals each)
Best player	Rodri
Best young player	Lamine Yamal
← 2020 2028 →

The 2024 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2024 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2024) or simply Euro 2024, was the 17th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international football championship organised by UEFA for the European men's national teams of its member associations. Germany hosted the tournament, which took place from 14 June to 14 July 2024. The tournament involved 24 teams, with Georgia making their European Championship debut.

It was the third time that European Championship matches were played on German territory, and the second time in reunified Germany, as West Germany hosted the 1988 tournament, and four matches of the multi-national Euro 2020 were played in Munich. It was the first time the competition was held in what was formerly East Germany, with Leipzig as a host city, as well as the first major tournament since the 2006 FIFA World Cup that Germany served as a solo host nation. The tournament returned to its usual four-year cycle after the 2020 edition was postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Italy were the defending champions, having won the 2020 final against England on penalties, but were eliminated in the round of 16 by Switzerland. Host nation Germany were eliminated by Spain in the quarter-finals; Spain went on to win the tournament for a record fourth time after defeating England 2–1 in the final.

Venues

Germany had a wide choice of stadiums that satisfied UEFA's minimum capacity requirement of 30,000 seats for European Championship matches.

Of the ten venues selected for Euro 2024, nine were used for the 2006 FIFA World Cup: Berlin, Dortmund, Munich, Cologne, Stuttgart, Hamburg, Leipzig, Frankfurt, and Gelsenkirchen. Düsseldorf, which was not used in 2006 but had previously been used for the 1974 FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euro 1988, served as the tenth venue; conversely, Hanover, Nuremberg and Kaiserslautern, host cities in 2006 (in addition to 1974 and 1988 in Hanover's case), were not used for this championship. Munich, the site of the first game of UEFA Euro 2024, was also a host city at the multi-national UEFA Euro 2020 tournament, hosting four matches (three involving Germany) in front of a greatly reduced number of spectators due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Various other stadiums, such as those in Bremen and Mönchengladbach, were not selected. The area with the highest number of venues at UEFA Euro 2024 was the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with four of the ten host cities (Dortmund, Düsseldorf, Gelsenkirchen and Cologne).

Berlin	Munich	Dortmund	Stuttgart
Olympiastadion	Allianz Arena	Westfalenstadion	MHPArena
Capacity: 71,000	Capacity: 66,000	Capacity: 62,000	Capacity: 51,000
Gelsenkirchen
Arena AufSchalke
Capacity: 50,000
Hamburg
Volksparkstadion
Capacity: 49,000
Düsseldorf	Frankfurt	Cologne	Leipzig
Merkur Spiel-Arena	Waldstadion	RheinEnergieStadion	Red Bull Arena
Capacity: 47,000	Capacity: 47,000	Capacity: 43,000	Capacity: 40,000

Statistics

Goalscorers

There were 117 goals scored in 51 matches, for an average of 2.29 goals per match.

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

Source: UEFA

Awards

• Player of the Tournament: Rodri
• Top goalscorer: Dani Olmo (3 goals and 2 assists)
• Top assist provider: Lamine Yamal (4 assists)
• Young Player of the Tournament: Lamine Yamal
• Goal of the Tournament: Lamine Yamal

UEFA Team of the Tournament

Maignan

Saliba

Akanji

Walker

Cucurella

Rodri

Olmo

Fabián

Yamal

Williams

Musiala

The Team of the Tournament, chosen by UEFA

UEFA's technical observer team was given the objective of naming a team of the best eleven players from the tournament. Six players from the winning Spanish squad were named in the team.

Goalkeeper	Defenders	Midfielders	Forwards
Mike Maignan	Kyle Walker Manuel Akanji William Saliba Marc Cucurella	Dani Olmo Rodri Fabián Ruiz	Lamine Yamal Jamal Musiala Nico Williams

Prize money

The prize money was finalised on 2 December 2023. Each team will receive a participation fee of €9.25 million, with the winner able to earn a maximum of €28.25 million.

Records

• Spain are the only European Champions to have twice won all their group & knockout matches (2008 & 2024) with France (1984) and Italy (2021) having achieved this once. This statistic refers to the European Championships since 1980, with the inclusion of the group stage.
• Spain are the only team to win all seven games at one tournament without needing a penalty shoot-out. France also won all five games without needing a penalty shoot-out in 1984.
• Spain's 15 goals is the current record for most goals scored at one tournament. The record was previously held by France (1984, 14 goals). 10 different players scored for Spain, which is another record.
• Lamine Yamal became the youngest player to feature at a UEFA European Championship at 16 years and 338 days old after playing for Spain in their opening match against Croatia. The previous youngest was Poland's Kacper Kozłowski, aged 17 years and 246 days in 2021.
• With his goal in the semi-final against France, Yamal then became the youngest goalscorer in the history of European Championships, aged 16 years 362 days. The previous youngest was Switzerland's Johan Vonlanthen, aged 18 years and 141 days in 2004, also against France.
• Yamal's appearance in the final, one day after his 17th birthday, also made him the youngest player to appear in a UEFA European Championship final.
• Nedim Bajrami set the record for fastest goal scored in European Championship history, scoring for Albania against Italy in 23 seconds. This shattered the previous record of 67 seconds, by Russia's Dmitri Kirichenko in 2004. Kirichenko's goal was then pushed into the third fastest goal position by Merih Demiral's goal for Turkey against Austria, after only 58 seconds. The fourth fastest goal was also recorded, when Youri Tielemans scored for Belgium against Romania after only 74 seconds.
• Portugal's Pepe became the oldest player to make an appearance at the European Championship, aged 41 years and 130 days in his quarter-final match against France. Hungary goalkeeper Gabor Király, the previous record holder, was aged 40 years and 86 days when he faced Belgium in the round of 16 in 2016. Before Pepe, the oldest outfield player was Lothar Matthäus, who won his 150th and final cap for Germany aged 39 years and 91 days in 2000.
• Cristiano Ronaldo extended his own record for the most tournaments featured in, appearing in his sixth European Championship.
• Luka Modrić became the oldest player to score a goal at the European Championship, aged 38 years and 289 days in his group stage match against Italy. The previous record was held by Austria's Ivica Vastić, who was 38 years and 257 days old when he scored against Poland in 2008.
• Kevin Csoboth set the record for the latest regular time goal in tournament history, scoring for Hungary against Scotland in the 10th minute after the 90-minute mark.
• The final Group F game between Czech Republic and Turkey broke the record for the most number of cards shown in total in a single match. 19 cards (17 yellow and 2 red) were shown (Czech Republic receiving 7 of them and Turkey 12), surpassing the previous record of 10 shown in the Euro 2016 final between Portugal and France.
• Portuguese goalkeeper Diogo Costa made three saves in the round of 16 penalty shoot-out against Slovenia, breaking the European Championship record for most saves in one penalty shoot-out, while Slovenia became the first team in tournament history to miss all of their penalties.

Marketing

Countdown clock for UEFA Euro 2024 in front of Düsseldorf City Hall

Branding

The official logo was unveiled on 5 October 2021, during a ceremony at the Olympiastadion in Berlin. The logo depicted the Henri Delaunay Trophy with 24 coloured slices around the trophy representing the 24 participating nations, and the ellipse reflected the shape of the Olympiastadion. In addition, each of the ten host cities had their own unique logo, featuring the following local sights:

• Berlin: Brandenburg Gate
• Cologne: Cologne Cathedral
• Dortmund: Dortmund U-Tower
• Düsseldorf: Schlossturm [de], Rheinturm and Rheinkniebrücke
• Frankfurt: Römer
• Gelsenkirchen: Musiktheater im Revier
• Hamburg: Elbphilharmonie
• Leipzig: Monument to the Battle of the Nations
• Munich: Frauenkirche
• Stuttgart: Fernsehturm Stuttgart

The official slogan of the tournament was "United by Football. Vereint im Herzen Europas." The slogan was chosen to promote diversity and inclusion.

Merchandise

In November 2023, it was announced that EA Sports had picked up the rights for the UEFA Euro 2024 video game, and that the Euro 2024 downloadable update would be coming to EA Sports FC 24, EA Sports FC Mobile, and EA Sports FC Online in the summer of 2024. Released on 11 June, the update featured a full tournament mode, local and online friendlies, and a Euro-themed single player career mode, called "Lead Your Nation", each including all of the teams, players, and tournament venues.

From Euro 2024, Fanatics would be controlling the e-commerce, event retail and licensing of UEFA National Team competitions until Euro 2028.

Topps, also owned by Fanatics, was the official sticker and trading card partner of the tournament, marking the end of Panini's association with UEFA which began in 1976. Stickers were produced for all the Euro 2024 teams, including the teams that did not qualify for the qualifying play-offs. These stickers could be sold, collected or traded.

Official song

In December 2023, Italian DJ group Meduza, American pop rock band OneRepublic and German singer Kim Petras were all announced as the official music artists of the tournament. However, in March 2024, it was announced that Petras had withdrawn from production due to scheduling issues, and was replaced by German singer Leony. The official song, "Fire", was released on 10 May 2024. It was performed live by the three music artists at the tournament's closing ceremony before the final on 14 July 2024.

Broadcasting rights

The International Broadcast Centre (IBC) was located at the halls of the Leipzig Trade Fair in Leipzig, Germany.

Unlike the previous two tournaments, UEFA discontinued 4K ultra-high-definition broadcasts due to technical constraints, and amid lukewarm interest in the format among European broadcasters in comparison to high-dynamic-range (HDR) color.

Sponsorship

UEFA used virtual advertising for the first time in the history of Euros, having three different types of sponsorship besides the Global sponsors, one pack for Germany, one for the United States and another for the Chinese market.

Official global sponsors

• Adidas
• Alibaba Group (Alipay, AliExpress, Antom and WorldFirst brands)
• Atos
• Betano
• Booking.com
• BYD Auto
• Coca-Cola
• Engelbert Strauss
• Hisense
• Lidl
• Qatar Airways
• Unilever
• Visit Qatar
• Vivo Mobile

Official Germany national sponsors

• Bitburger Brewery
• Deutsche Bahn
• Deutsche Telekom
• Ergo Group
• Wiesenhof

Symbols

Mascot

The official mascot "Albärt".

The official UEFA Euro 2024 mascot was unveiled on 20 June 2023 at the Germany vs Colombia international friendly in Gelsenkirchen. The mascot was a teddy bear with shorts on. A public vote was used to select the name of the mascot, with options being "Albärt", "Bärnardo", "Bärnheart" and "Herzi von Bär", all referencing the German word for bear (Bär). Results were made public on 5 July, with the mascot's name announced to be "Albärt", getting 32% of the votes.

Unofficially the event even has an animal oracle following in the footsteps of Paul the Octopus: Bubi the Elephant, who "predicted" Germany's opening round against Scotland with her initial kick through a makeshift goal.

Match ball

Official replica-version of the match ball "Fussballliebe".

The official match ball of the tournament, "Fussballliebe", was unveiled by UEFA and Adidas on 15 November 2023. Translated from the German as "football love", it featured black wing shapes with red, blue, orange and green edges and curves to showcase the qualified nations' vibrancy to the tournament, and the love that fans around the world give to football. Created with sustainable organic materials, this was the first ball for a UEFA Euro to feature "Connected Ball Technology", where it contained internal electronic sensors, allowing detection of its movement for UEFA match officials to use to assist in decision-making.

See also

In Spanish: Eurocopa 2024 para niños

• CONMEBOL–UEFA Cup of Champions
• 2024 Copa América
• 2024 OFC Men's Nations Cup
• UEFA Women's Euro 2025