Europe’s football regulatory body UEFA has revealed the guidelines on the bidding process for the 2024 continental tournament.


The body says that the winning host nation must comply with human rights rules – a first time this is happening.

Germany and Turkey are the only countries seeking to host the tournament as they were the only ones that indicated formal interests before the March deadline. The Germans hosted the 1974 World Cup, the European Championships in 1988 as West Germany before hosting the 2006 World Cup as a nation.

On the other hand, Turkey has never hosted a major football tournament, and this human rights abuse angle does not favour them. Following the coup attempt in Turkey, the president TayyipErdoganhas been accused of a crackdown on civilians by the international community. A state of emergency was declared and almost 47,000 people were arrested over a nine-month period. The nation has blocked access to Wikipedia under national security laws.

Germany are now the likely host of the continental competitions. Reps from the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) and the German counterparts (DFB) were told at the headquarters of UEFA on Thursday that their bids would have to contain criteria based on the United Nations “Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.”

The criteria include the duty of the state to protect human rights, the duty of businesses to protect the rights and access to remedies when these rights are not respected. UEFA seeks protection of human and labour rights and the bids must follow anti-corruption rules. The bidding sides have until April next year to submit complete bids. UEFA would consider the bids for five months before announcing the chosen nation to host the tournament in seven years’ time.