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European football’s governing body UEFA Wednesday announced that Germany will host the women’s 2029 European Championship, where England will be the two-time defending champions. Germany, the record eight-time winners of the Euros, beat off competition from Poland and a joint Sweden-Denmark bid, and will host the tournament for the third time, just five years after doing so for the men’s Euros. It is a measure of compensation for Germany, who missed out on hosting the 2027 women’s World Cup when FIFA picked Brazil instead. “Incredible! A dream come true. After 2001, we are once again hosting a Women’s EURO in Germany,” German football federation (DFB) vice-president for women’s and girls’ football Heike Ullrich said. In its bid, Germany had vowed to help women’s football realise its “enormous potential”. The eight host stadiums include Munich’s 70,000-capacity Allianz Arena, Dortmund’s 66,000-capacity Westfalenstadion and five more stadiums with between 45,000 and 54,000 capacities. Germany believes it will be able to sell more than a million tickets to the 31 matches – compared to 657,291 for this year’s tournament in Switzerland. “We are totally convinced that the tournament in Germany will attract more than a million fans,” DFB president Bernd Neuendorf said, adding he felt sure the tournament would generate a profit “for the first time”.Germany highlighted its central European position and strong public transport links in its bid. Sustainability has become a key issue in bidding processes for major events, given the damaging environmental impact of such tournaments. Switzerland boasted that 86 percent of ticket holders for its tournament used either public transport, bicycles or walked to reach their venues. “Hosting such an important tournament is an honour, but it also comes with a great responsibility,” Neuendorf added. “After the wonderful UEFA Women’s EURO 2025 in Switzerland, we want to set new standards.” 

UEFA on Monday said it had “reluctantly” approved the staging of a La Liga and a Serie A match in the United States and Australia respectively despite fan protests.“While it is regrettable to have to let these two games go ahead, this decision is exceptional and shall not be seen as setting a precedent,” UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin said in a statement.UEFA made its ruling after Spain’s La Liga agreed to move a game scheduled for late December between champions Barcelona and Villarreal to Miami, Florida. Italy’s Serie A also decided to stage the encounter between AC Milan and Como on February 8 in Perth, Australia, to avoid a clash with the Winter Olympics opening ceremony at Milan’s San Siro stadium.But that sparked protests from European supporters groups who branded the moves “absurd, unaffordable, and environmentally irresponsible”.In its statement, UEFA said that it had “reiterated its clear opposition to domestic league matches being played outside their home country”.But despite “the widespread lack of support that had already been raised by fans, other leagues, clubs, players and European institutions”, UEFA said that it had found no clear regulatory framework in FIFA’s statutes that would allow it to oppose the moves. “The UEFA Executive Committee has reluctantly taken the decision to approve, on an exceptional basis, the two requests referred to it,” European football’s governing body said in its statement.While the idea of relocating European football matches to other continents seems shocking to many, other sports - particularly US ones - have been doing something similar for years, even decades. The NFL has held games in London since 2007 while it also expanded to Mexico and Germany. Last year it added a game in Sao Paulo and this year there has been one in Dublin for the first time. Another is slated for Madrid in November while Melbourne will play host to a game in 2026.The NBA, which has relocated regular-season matches since 1990 to Japan and since 2013 to Europe, has already scheduled six games in Berlin, London, Manchester and Paris over the next three seasons. In rugby union, the French Top 14 club competition took its 2016 final to Barcelona’s Camp Nou stadium, while Ireland and New Zealand played an international match in Chicago that same year - with Ireland claiming their first ever victory over the All Blacks.Last weekend, Argentina played their final Rugby Championship match at home to South Africa at Twickenham in London. It is not unheard of in football to host matches abroad, but until now those had only ever been glorified friendlies.

The draw for the unified group stage of the 2025-2026 UEFA Champions League will take place on Thursday, in Monaco, France.The same procedures as last season will be adopted, featuring a league phase comprising 36 teams in a single group.Twenty-seven teams have already secured their qualification for the competition based on their league standings, along with the winners of last season's Champions League and Europa League, and seven teams that advanced from the qualifiers.The teams have been divided into four pots based on their UEFA coefficients, starting with Pot 1.Each team will be drawn individually, and then eight opponents will be selected for them via UEFA's automated system.Pot 1 includes reigning champions Paris Saint-Germain (France), Real Madrid (Spain), Manchester City (England), Bayern Munich (Germany), Liverpool (England), Inter Milan (Italy), Chelsea (England), Borussia Dortmund (Germany), and Barcelona (Spain).Pot 2 features Arsenal (England), Bayer Leverkusen (Germany), Atletico Madrid (Spain), Atalanta (Italy), Villarreal (Spain), Juventus (Italy), Eintracht Frankfurt (Germany), and Club Brugge (Belgium).Pot 3 comprises Tottenham (England, Europa League winner), Ajax Amsterdam (Netherlands), Napoli (Italy), Sporting CP (Portugal), Olympiacos (Greece), PSV Eindhoven (Netherlands), Slavia Prague (Czech Republic), Bodo/Glimt (Norway), and Marseille (France).Pot 4 includes Monaco (France), Pafos FC (Cyprus), Kairat Almaty (Kazakhstan), Galatasaray (Turkey), Union Saint-Gilloise (Belgium), Athletic Bilbao (Spain), and Newcastle (England).The remaining four teams for the league phase will be determined later today through the second leg matches of the qualifying round.