Switzerland has been awarded the right to host the women's Euro-2025 tournament, UEFA announced on Tuesday, after its executive committee meeting in Lisbon.
The bid was preferred to France, a quartet of Nordic nations (Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden) and Poland -- taking over from England, who hosted and won the European Championship in 2022.
Sixteen nations will take part in the competition, which will be held in June and July 2025 in Basel, Bern, Geneva, Zurich, St Gallen, Sion, Lucerne and Thun, according to a statement from the Swiss Football Association.
It has never hosted a European Women's Championship on its soil, unlike Norway (1987, 1997 with Sweden), Denmark (1991), Finland (2009) and Sweden (2013).
A strategic decision
While the four Nordic countries -- where women's football is very popular -- have been expected to host the competition, Switzerland undoubtedly benefited from its central position on the continent.
“Our tournament should be a four-week celebration for the whole of Switzerland and, thanks to our location in the heart of Europe, also for neighbouring countries,” said in a statement Marion Daube, head of women's football at the Swiss Football Association and head of the bid project.
The French host of the 2019 Women's World Cup may have been hurt by the fiasco of the Champions League final at the Stade de France in May 2022, but also by the crisis at the French FA, which led to the resignation of president Noel Le Graët, and by the psychodrama at Les Bleues with the ousting of coach Corinne Diacre, who has been publicly let down by a number of senior players.