By Associated Press
Women’s World Cup winner Spain was drawn in a 2025 European Championship group with Italy, Belgium and Portugal on Monday.
The past two European champions in women’s soccer, titleholder England and Euro 2017 winner the Netherlands, landed in a strong group with top-seeded France and Wales.
Germany, the record eight-time European champion, was drawn with Denmark, Poland and Sweden, the inaugural winner in 1984.
Host Switzerland will open the tournament against Norway on July 2 at Basel’s St. Jakob Park stadium. The group also includes Iceland and Finland.
Basel also will host the final on July 27.
More than 700,000 tickets are publicly available for the 31 games being hosted in eight Swiss cities.
Meanwhile, prize money for the 2025 Women’s European Championship will more than double, with the 16 teams sharing 41 million euros ($43 million).
Each federation will get a minimum of 1.8 million euros ($1.9 million) for playing at Euro 2025 in Switzerland and is obliged to share at least 30% of the money among the players, UEFA’s executive committee decided on Monday.
The champion can earn up to 5.1 million euros.
Clubs whose players compete at the tournament will share 6 million euros ($6.3 million) at a daily rate of 657 euros ($690) per player. That is a total increase of 33% compared to the last women’s Euros.
Group A: Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, Finland
Group B: Spain, Italy, Belgium, Portugal
Group C: Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Poland
Group D: France, England, Netherlands, Wales
AP
