The more important task is still ahead of the creative workers employed with the 2024 European Championship. There is now an official logo for the tournament, which will take place in three years. It is colorful, provided with the colors of the 55 Uefa member associations and modeled on the roof of the Berlin Olympic Stadium. “It fits in with the zeitgeist and has a lot of content,” praised Oliver Bierhoff, Zeitgeist expert and director at the German Football Association.
But while the logo is now fixed, there is still no mascot. And of course that is expected with particular excitement. Unlike the lion Goleo, the stuffed animal for the last major men’s soccer event in Germany, the version from 2024 should definitely wear trousers in the spirit of the times.
Philipp Lahm tried to make the obvious comparison with the 2006 World Cup at the logo presentation on Tuesday evening, even if he was not referring to the trousers-free Goleo or the possible purchase of votes when the award was made, but of course to the summer fairytale atmosphere. “I always like to think back to it,” said the tournament director, who was a footballer 15 years ago and scored the opening goal against Costa Rica. It is now difficult to imagine the official Lahm, 37, wearing a jersey. But this is not the only reason why it is likely to become complicated to carry over the relaxed atmosphere from 2006 to 2024. At that time it came as a positive surprise. This time it is urgently needed.
It was ironic to see Uefa President Aleksander Ceferin smiling with satisfaction in the photos from the event in Berlin. After all, it wasn’t long ago that it would have been pretty sensational news: Uefa boss is happy about the colorful German stadium! At the end of June, as a reminder, the European Football Association forbade the city of Munich to light up its arena in rainbow colors on the occasion of the European Championship group game between Germany and Hungary as a sign of tolerance. The outrage was great.
Rather than a new edition of the 2006 World Cup, the EM 2024 should initially be an event that must help football to correct its image. It will be the first European championship after the pandemic EM, which was not only criticized for rainbow debates, but also for not being careful when dealing with the corona virus. In addition, the EM 2024 is also one of the first major football tournaments after the World Cup in Qatar in 2022. In the opinion of many fans, there has rarely been an event as representative of the undesirable developments in the sport as a winter World Cup in a desert state that has been criticized for its handling of human rights.
The high ambitions that Lahm formulated seem almost logical against the background. “We want to move things beyond football and perhaps also bring about a new standard in terms of major events,” he said, speaking of topics such as sustainability, the environment and the common good. So it’s not going to be that straightforward. Or to explain it using the example of the mascot: This time, not just a pair of trousers, but at best a fairly produced one.