UEFA has announced that respect of human rights is now a requirement of the bidding process to host UEFA EURO competitions.

Declarations of interest to host UEFA EURO 2024 have been received from the German Football Association (DFB) and the Turkish Football Federation (TFF), and last week they attended a bid opening workshop at UEFA headquarters to outline the bidding requirements.

The new human rights criteria are based on the United Nations’ “Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights” and other UN conventions and were developed in close cooperation with Sport and Rights Alliance. Criteria regarding compliance and anticorruption measures have also been included as requirements.

In addition, accessibility requirements are also included in the bidding process.

Tournament hosts are required to provide an accessible matchday experience for all, and meet good practice criteria in terms of accessible seating and sightlines.

Bidders are required to provide at least a minimum number of wheelchair user, easy-access and amenity seats, and accessible toilets, as outlined in the UEFA and CAFE Good Practice Guide to Creating an Accessible Stadium and Matchday Experience – ‘Access for All’.

Furthermore, hosts must indicate the accessible environment for disabled fans in Host Cities (hotels, restaurants and public transport), provide audio-descriptive commentary for partially sighted and blind fans, provide accessible wayfinding and signage, and conduct a CAFE access audit of stadium infrastructure at least 24 months ahead of the tournament.

UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin said, “The protection of human rights and labour rights is of the utmost importance for UEFA. It was imperative for us to introduce specific articles on the respect and protection of human rights in the bidding requirements for all of our competitions. From now on, bidding nations will have to adhere strictly to these articles in the framework of the organisation of all our tournaments and finals”.

Both the DFB and the TFF will have until 27 April 2018 to complete and submit their bid dossiers to UEFA. The UEFA Executive Committee will decide on who has won the right to host UEFA EURO 2024 in September 2018.

The UEFA EURO 2024 Tournament Requirements are available here.

The UEFA EURO 2024 Bid Dossier Template can be accessed here.

For further information, please visit UEFA.org.

Published 02/05/2017