Scandinavian Nations Launch Joint Bid To Host UEFA Women’s Euro 2025

The Football Associations of Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland have today formally launched an ambitious joint-bid to host the UEFA Women’s Euro 2025. Labeling the campaign ‘Nordics 2025’, if successful, it would be the first major tournament in Europe to be staged in four different countries.

Building on the success of the UEFA Women’s Euro finals in England this summer seems like an impossible task for any nation but the Scandinavian bid is promising to surpass the total attendance of 574,865 achieved in England where some smaller grounds were used behind the headline-grabbing attendances at Old Trafford and Wembley.

Stating that it will be “founded on a vision to inspire and build truly equal opportunities for women’s football across Europe”, the Nordic bid claims it is set to be the biggest edition of the UEFA Women’s Euro with 800,000 tickets made available and the final to be staged at the 50,000-capacity Friends Arena in Stockholm, the largest stadium in the region.

In all, they are proposing eight host cities across the four nations, with each country’s capital city – Copenhagen, Stockholm, Oslo and Helsinki – supplemented by a second city in each – Odense, Gothenburg, Trondheim and Tampere. As part of their preparations, over 40 participants from all eight of the proposed host cities visited the tournament this summer in England. Despite the necessity of travelling between four different nations, the bid is emphasizing the sustainability of the bid by maintaining a compact tournament.

Sweden won the first-ever edition of the UEFA Women’s Euro in 1984. Norway has won it on two occasions and are six-time finalists. Alongside Germany, they are the only nation to win the Euro, the Women’s World Cup and Olympic Gold. The President of the Norwegian Football Association , Lise Klavness emphasized that “women’s football in the Nordic countries has so much to offer. We offer to share with the rest of Europe our joint ambition to leave a long-lasting legacy of truly equal opportunities in football.”

The President of the Finland Football Association, Ari Lahti added “football is a powerful opportunity to make a change. Our Nordic bid offers to take the UEFA Women’s Euro to the next level by growing the fan culture of women’s football and organizing the biggest Women’s Euro ever.”

“Together we are stronger,” claims Swedish Football Association President Karl-Erik Nilsson. “Together we will provide a unique experience for both players and supporters. All Nordic football associations agrees about the importance of organizing major championships in our countries, and together we have great ambitions for the development of women’s football. The UEFA Women’s Euro in the Nordic countries will strengthen the women’s football with a focus on sustainability, safety, and equal societies.”

Sweden hosted the UEFA Women’s Euro as recently as 2013 when there were only twelve teams in the competition. That year’s final was also played at the Friends Arena when the match between Germany and Norway was watched as a then-record attendance for the tournament of 41,301 spectators. The 16,000-capacity Gamla Ullevi stadium in Gothenburg was sold-out for all of the host nation’s matches.

Finland staged the one before that in 2009 with their 36,251-capacity Olympic Stadium in Helsinki half-full for the final between Germany and England. Norway and Sweden had jointly staged the 1997 tournament featuring eight teams and Norway alone hosted the four-team tournament in 1987. Denmark has never staged the entire finals of a senior men’s or women’s championship but Copenhagen did host four matches at the men’s UEFA Euro 2020 tournament.

“The Nordic bid for UEFA Women’s Euro 2025 is much more than a championship,” said Jesper Møller, the President of the Danish Football Association. “It is a team work to grow women’s football in all of Europe and to ensure the continued development of women’s football for equal opportunities, more diversity and better sustainability across our common Nordic visions and values.”

“With Euro 2020 in fresh memory, where Denmark showed its event potential, we will reuse and refine all the good experiences to once again create a celebration for all fans. With a joint Nordic bid, we will display not just Denmark but the entire Nordic approach to women’s football and innovative event management – and we will do it on the foundation of solidarity, which is the core value of the European sports model.”

All bids to host the tournament must be submitted by today, with France, Poland and Switzerland also declaring their intention to bid to stage the finals. A proposed bid by Ukraine seems unlikely to now go forward following the invasion of the country by the Russian Federation. The host of the 14th edition of the UEFA Women’s Euro will be decided by the UEFA Executive Committee on January 25, 2023.