What happens today? Not a usual selection!
An important event in European Soccer / Football takes place tonight in France. Two countries compete to become host of the European Championship in 2024. Given both countries had better relations in the past decades as now a tricky topic. There will a winner and a loser - hopefully the losing side will accept it, no matter which one. The award ceremony will take place in Nyon where the European Football Championship 2024 will be awarded by the Executive Committee of the European Football Union (UEFA). For the election there are 18 officials entitled to vote if they are present with the exception of German Football Association (DFB) President Reinhard Grindel and his Turkish equivalent Servet Yardimci who both are not allowed to vote as they are candidates.
While we hope to have the tournament in Germany of course this vote seems quite open. Despite the tense human rights situation, the application by Turkey has some arguments in its favour. The lovely country of a lot of my vacation is applying for the 5th time since 14 years - they tried to win that application for the championships of 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016 already, they own a lot modern stadiums and meet the required criteria by the UEFA. The fans are hot for such a tournament and are crazy for football. Financially it would be a chance to enter new markets for the UEFA.
Germany used to sit in pole position since the start of the campaign but recently my fellow Germans lost confidence a bit - together with the recent disaster at world Cup 2018 we fear another defeat. The voters now have to make a decision with a choice between the tried and trusted. Germany is known for being able to handle such a tournament but turkey uses the claim of promoting a "global Europe" - background is the fact Turkey is connecting Asia and Europe and is considered to be the gateway to the Middle East and Africa. This could be a reason that Turkey will be awarded with the tournament this time - for sure it will be tight.
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