How did Germany fare as UEFA host?
The UEFA Euro 2024 football championships lasted a month - time enough for Germany to show itself from its best side, but also for less positive aspects to reveal themselves to foreign guests. A press conference before the semi-final pitting the Netherlands against England was actually cancelled due to train delays. Europe's press takes stock.
So much for German efficiency
Spectators had to put up with all sorts of problems, columnist Melanie McDonagh complains in The Daily Telegraph:
“The Euros showed us one thing: Germany isn't all it's cracked up to be. Fans who travelled around it for the games marvelled not at the impressive reminders of the German past, especially in Berlin, but at the way the trains don't run on time. Half of them don't. Mobile phone coverage is curiously patchy and card payments may or may not work. ... On the bright side, the next time someone utters the mystic words, 'Vorsprung Durch Technik' we can justifiably reply: nuts to that.”
A celebration of fan culture
For Deutschlandfunk, Euro 2024 was the fans' tournament:
“They defined the competition's image in terms of colour and sound and turned many cities and arenas into special places for four weeks. It was like a comeback for fan culture after two very difficult tournaments. After a European Championship three years ago that was marked by pandemic conditions and the fact that UEFA thought it was a great idea to hold the tournament in eleven countries. And even more so after the one where supposed 'fans' were paid to fill the stadiums. The World Cup in Qatar had as little to do with real atmosphere and fan culture as snowmen with the desert ... The European Championship in Germany was the exact opposite: a celebration of fan culture.”
Contempt for Poland is out of place
From a Polish perspective, Euro 2024 failed to improve Germany's image in Poland, as the events of the last few days only served to enhance their feelings of antipathy, writes Rzeczpospolita:
“What has stirred the strongest emotions among the Polish public? The German pushbacks of immigrants who were driven to Poland in police cars; the visit of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, whose proposals for reparations can hardly be seen as anything other than an expression of contempt for Poland. ... It's difficult to like the Germans in Poland, especially since they themselves don't make this easy for us. They rarely make symbolic gestures, ally themselves with Russia on a regular basis and constantly remind us that our place is somewhere in the second row.”