Football: 100 days before the European Championships: Neuendorf and Lahm as healers

In a few weeks the environment will look completely different: brighter, more colorful. Once spring reaches Frankfurt’s city forest, the central organizational unit for the 2024 European Football Championship will be located in the two-story extension of the former DFB headquarters in the Otto-Fleck-Schneise in the middle of a green oasis of well-being. At best, this is how it should work with the final round controlled from here from June 14th to July 14th. But 100 days before the starting signal, the gray veil just won’t go away: enthusiasm and anticipation for the biggest sporting event of the next few years can hardly be seen.

The outside view seems to be different, as Markus Stenger, managing director of Euro 2024 GmbH, recently remarked at the sports business congress in Hamburg: “Foreign countries are incredibly keen. We feel an incredible sense of anticipation – sometimes more so than in Germany.” His worry lines have also become a little bigger. In addition to mobility, the “view of the geopolitical world situation” is also challenging, said Stenger. »We still have a lot to do. Everything stands or falls with security.«

So how is the much-quoted summer fairy tale 2.0 supposed to come about? The first answer has to be that things were hardly better before the 2006 World Cup. Stiftung Warentest sent the country into turmoil at the beginning of the year because the new arenas, built with a lot of taxpayer money, allegedly had “some significant security gaps.” But the inspectors overshot the mark because they concluded that steps that were too short would have “devastating consequences.” There were also complaints about too many tickets for VIPs and sponsors as well as alleged data leaks from the World Cup tickets. In addition, as is currently the case, there was the devastating sporting situation: after the German national team lost 4-1 to Italy in Florence, many consequences were demanded. The Bundesliga also no longer seemed competitive.

And yet everything was no longer an issue when, in the opening game on June 9, 2006 in Munich, Philipp Lahm shot the ball into the corner against Costa Rica despite a broken arm. From that day on the sun shone all over Germany. And the world was a guest of friends. Today the World Cup shooter is the European Championship tournament director and says: “At the 2006 World Cup, I experienced for myself how much a tournament in your own country can inspire people. Germany has presented itself as a hospitable, modern country and a good organizer.” He is sure “that too the Euro 2024 can be an event that inspires people in Germany and Europe and brings them together.”

Like Lahm, Bernd Neuendorf, president of the battered German Football Association, also tries to be a healer: He doesn’t like it when “the mood is talked into the basement.” Although he objects to the idea that “football is a panacea,” that would certainly exaggerate the event. But the tournament should provide “variety, confidence, joy and pride”. There wouldn’t have been 150,000 applications from all over the world for the 16,000 volunteer places if “so many people didn’t want to get in touch with the tournament,” said Neuendorf. Nevertheless, he of course notices how the “multi-crisis situation is depressing the mood.” Since many people in this country simply cannot or do not want to come together on important future issues such as energy supply, climate protection or immigration, the socio-political controversy is added to the tense world situation with the war in Ukraine and the Middle East conflict.

The EM organizers regret that the federal government is putting the brakes on. “We could have made more of the tournament,” criticized Stenger again. The transport pillar is wobbling because air traffic – and not just because of the strike – is more unreliable than ever before. The major construction sites on many motorways have not been cleared in time, which can lead to problems with the rush of so many fans in the heart of Europe. And in terms of sport, things aren’t going well for the DFB team either. But maybe everything will come together again into a happy unity.