Among the most prestigious sporting events worldwide this year is the quadrennial UEFA European Championships Tournament (a.k.a. 2024 Euro Cup or simply Euro 24). The month-long 24-team tournament began on June 14 with opening round games and will conclude with the championship game on July 14. This will be the 17th Euro Cup which had its beginnings in 1960. Of the 24 participants, only Georgia is making their Euro Cup debut. In the U.S., ratings for the 2024 Euro Cup have been on a record pace.
For Euro 2024, Germany is the lone host country, with games being played across ten cities and venues. The championship game will be played at Berlin’s Olympiastadion, the same location as the 1936 Summer Olympics. The stadium was updated in 2006 and has a seating capacity of 76,475, making it the largest soccer stadium in the country. Previously, Germany had hosted the 2006 Euro Cup and in 1988 as West Germany. Looking at time differences, Germany is six hours “ahead” of New York and nine hours “ahead” of Los Angeles. The championship game will start at 9 p.m. local time.
Host country Germany and Spain have each won three Euro Cups more than any other nation. Italy and France have both won the tournament twice. Spain is the only nation to win back-to-back Euro Cups in 2008 and 2012.The defending champion is Italy which defeated England on penalty kicks. Similar to the Tokyo Summer Olympics, the 2020 Euro Cup was played in 2021. Also, because of the pandemic, the matches were played across eleven nations. The title match was played in London’s Wembley Stadium. This year by losing to Switzerland in the Round of 16, Italy will not be a repeat champion.
With the Opening Round and the knock-out Round of 16 concluded, there are only seven matches remaining: four quarterfinals, two semifinals and the championship game. Here is the remaining schedule and location. All start times are local.
Euro Cup Quarterfinals Schedule:
July 5 6 p.m. Spain vs Germany MHPArena, Stuttgart
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July 5 9 p.m. Portugal vs. France Volksparkstadion, Hamburg
July 6 6 p.m. England vs. Switzerland Merkur Spiel-Arena, Dusseldorf
July 6 9 p.m. Netherlands vs. Türkiye Olympiastadion, Berlin
Euro Cup Semifinal Matches:
July 9 9 p.m. Winners of July 5 matches Allianz Arena, Munich
July 10 9 p.m. Winners of July 6 matches Signal Iduna Park, Dortmund
Euro Cup Final:
July 14 9 p.m. Semifinal winners Olympiastadion, Berlin
As of July 3, England is listed as a slight favorite to win the Euro Cup ahead of Spain. Both France and Germany are next followed by The Netherlands. Türkiye is a longshot.
While the Euro Cup is strictly limited to European nations, there has always been global interest. In the United States all the games are available on television or online. For English language the games are broadcast on Fox Sports (Fox, FS1 and FS2) and Univision for Spanish language. For streaming the games in English are available on Fubo (which is providing a free trial) and Fox Sports app/website, The games can be streamed in Spanish on TUDN
In November 2021 Fox Sports announced a six-year agreement with the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) the governing body of the Euro Cup. Under the agreement, Fox Sports will television upwards of 1,500 soccer matches including the 2024- and 2028-Euro Cups. GlobalData estimates the deal to be valued at $270 million. The 2028 Euro Cup will be hosted by the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland.
Concurrent to their Euro Cup coverage, Fox Sports (and TelevisaUnivision) has also been televising the 2024 Copa América, another prestigious soccer tournament. This year the 16-team tournament, hosted by the United States, started on June 20 and will conclude on July 14, the same day as the Euro Cup finale. Hence, over the course of one month Fox Sports will be televising 78 international soccer matches during its “summer of soccer”.
During the 2024 Euro Cup, Fox announced they will televise the 2025 Women’s Euro Cup. The 16-team tournament will be hosted by Switzerland from July 2 to 27. The 2021 Women’s Euro Cup) delayed by pandemic) was won by host country England the following year. In the U.S., the tournament aired on ESPN.
The ratings for the 2024 Euro Cup are tracking at record high levels, yet another indication of the popularity of live sports on linear television. According to Nielsen, the average audience for the Group Stage matches on Fox was 1.045 million, surpassing the audience record of 1.002 million viewers from 2012. The average audience was also a 30% increase from the 2021 Group Stage on ESPN which averaged 806,000 viewers.
The ratings growth on Fox continued into the knockout Round of 16. For example, the first round of 16 match on Saturday June 29 (Germany vs. Denmark) on Fox averaged 2.20 million viewers. The second match (Switzerland vs. Italy) on cable’s FS1 averaged 1.54 million viewers, both up by double-digits compared to corresponding matches from 2021.
The following day the audiences were even stronger. The first game (England vs. Slovakia) averaged 2.538 million viewers, a 69% increase from 2021. The second game (Spain vs. Georgia) averaged a record 2.868 million viewers. Through last Sunday viewing of the Euro Cup is tracking 31% higher than in 2021 and 71% from 2016.
Fox can anticipate strong ratings for the Euro Cup final. In 2021, the title game averaged 9.4 million viewers on ESPN, Univision and TUDN, a 59% increase from 2016. This year the start time will be 3 p.m. (ET).
On July 24, ten days after the finals match for the Euro Cup and Copa América and, two days before the Opening Ceremonies, will be the first men’s soccer match of the 2024 Summer Olympics in France. The men’s tournament will include 16 teams from six confederations worldwide including Team USA. The games will be available on Peaco*ck and televised on NBCU networks. The men’s Gold Medal match is scheduled for August 9. Brazil won the Men’s Gold Medal in 2020.
It will be a busy summer for soccer fans worldwide.
