When Germany was chosen to stage Euro 2024, six years ago, eight of the tournament’s 10 stadiums played host to Bundesliga clubs. Now, that figure is down to five – thanks to a fearsome curse.
Unsurprisingly, most of the stadiums chosen to host the Euros were also home to the country’s biggest clubs – despite that, many of those teams have since fallen on hard times. Incredibly, only four of the 10 – Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig and Eintracht Frankfurt – have remained in the top flight ever since.
VfB Stuttgart were relegated in 2019, but have at least recovered, gaining promotion a year later, then finishing second in the Bundesliga this season, to qualify for the Champions League for the first time in 15 years. Other clubs haven’t been so lucky.
FC Köln, based at the impressive RheinEnergieStadion, were actually in the second tier in 2018, but quickly gained promotion, then played in Europe as recently as two seasons ago. This season, it went horribly wrong – they won only five games, and were relegated back to the 2. Bundesliga for 2024-25.
Hamburg, from the Volksparkstadion, had just been relegated for the first time in their history in 2018. Since then, the curse has been strong.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
After missing out on the promotion play-off by a point in 2019, they lost 5-1 to Sandhausen to narrowly miss out again in 2020. A year later, they finished fourth once more, but finally nabbed third spot to make the play-off in 2022. From there, they won the away leg… then lost the home leg 2-0.
In 2023, fans invaded the pitch to celebrate automatic promotion when they won on the last day of the campaign – only for rivals Heidenheim to score two injury-time goals and force them into a play-off, which they lost 6-1 on aggregate. Then this season, while their smaller neighbours St Pauli won the league, they finished fourth. Again.
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Like Hamburg, Schalke were similarly previously one of the giants of the Bundesliga. That was until they were relegated in 2021, promoted in 2022 and relegated again in 2023. This season, they finished 10th in the second tier, despite averaging crowds of 61,000 at the Veltins-Arena.
Hertha Berlin averaged 50,000 at the Olympiastadion, which will host the final of Euro 2024, but finished ninth in the 2. Bundesliga, after relegation last season.
The campaign looked set to have a happier end for Fortuna Dusseldorf, attempting to get back to the top flight after demotion in 2020. This season they finished third to earn a place in the promotion play-off, then won the away leg 3-0 at Bochum. A Bundesliga place was virtually theirs, what could possibly go wrong? Er, they lost the home leg 3-0, before succumbing in a penalty shoot-out.
The Euros curse is quite something, then – crazily, there will be eight stadiums in the German second tier with a capacity of more than 45,000 next season, and only six in the Bundesliga. Everton, are you sure you still want to host games at Euro 2028?
