In a frenzy of excitement, football enthusiasts have flooded the registration process, vying for a chance to secure tickets for the European Championships set to take place in Germany next
summer. The rush to register has seen more than 3 million applications pouring in within hours of the registration portal opening. The application window remains open until October 26th, after which tickets will be assigned through a lottery system.
Within the initial three hours of registration, a staggering 3.1 million applications from 142 countries were recorded, as announced by the organizing committee on Tuesday. The most coveted match among applicants appears to be the tournament's opening game scheduled for June 14th in Munich, featuring the host nation.
The first batch of 1.2 million tickets will be allocated starting from October 27th. Following the announcement of the tournament schedule through a draw on December 2nd, an additional 1 million tickets will be made available for fans from participating countries. A final portion of tickets will be released after the play-offs at the end of March, which will ultimately determine the tournament's final lineup. In total, 2.7 million tickets will be up for grabs.
The tournament is scheduled to take place from June 14th to July 14th, with matches hosted in 10 different cities. Germany has previously hosted the World Cup in 2006, an event that saw Italy securing the title after a dramatic penalty shoot-out victory over France.
Germany has secured an automatic qualification for Euro 2024, with the top two teams from each of the 10 qualifying groups also earning their place. The remaining three spots will be determined through play-offs contested by 12 teams, based on their performance in the 2022/23 Nations League.
Belgium currently leads its qualifying group, having won four matches and drawn one. Their upcoming fixtures include matches against Austria in Vienna on October 13th and Sweden at home on October 16th, with the final two games in November against Serbia and Azerbaijan.
In the previous tournament, postponed from 2020 to 2021 due to the pandemic, Belgium reached the quarter-finals but was eventually eliminated by Italy, who went on to become the champions. Photo by Weloc, Wikimedia commons.