Women’s EURO 2025 teams meet for finals briefing

Roberto Rosetti, UEFA's managing director of refereeing, met with head coaches and technical staff to share refereeing updates for the tournament.

The exact same technologies used at UEFA EURO 2024 will also be implemented at Women's EURO 2025 – video assistant referee (VAR), goal-line technology (GLT), connected ball technology and semi-automated offside technology (SAOT). Notably, both connected ball technology and SAOT will be used at the Women's EURO for the first time.

Several changes to the Laws of the Game will come into effect ahead of Women's EURO 2025. Among the most significant is the continuation of the policy – pioneered by UEFA at EURO 2024 – that only team captains may speak to the referee during the match.

This aims to enhance communication around referees' decisions, offering a line of dialogue to enhance fair play and the image of the tournament. Following its success at EURO 2024, the policy has now been formally adopted by the International Football Association Board (IFAB).

As with other UEFA final tournaments, representatives of the UEFA Referee Committee will meet each of the participating teams in advance of the tournament's kick-off, briefing them on what to expect from officials and to discuss the Laws of the Game amendments.

Each team has now chosen it's base camp for the tournament – the hotel and training centre where they will stay and prepare for matches while in Switzerland.

UEFA is committed to providing the same service levels to teams at Women's EURO as we did at EURO 2024 last summer, and in Nyon, outlined how we will provide support at these venues, providing in-depth information on travel, logistics and equipment.

UEFA via Getty Images

Each team will receive a comprehensive set of equipment to meet their training needs, including cones, hurdles, slalom poles, free-kick walls and branded corner flags. In addition, we supply 50 official match balls, five sets of 20 bibs in various colours, 50 squeeze bottles and two coolers for use throughout the tournament.

At stadiums, we provide a range of dressing room equipment, including a tactical board and flipchart, spinning bike, ice bath setup, massage tables, private Wi-Fi networks, refrigerators, and a TV screen.

The session also covered key transport logistics that ensure a smooth operation, including vital details that organisers must consider while the rest of us are glued to the action on the pitch.

In Nyon, all 16 national team doctors signed special concussion and anti-doping charters, pledging to comply with UEFA's regulations and protocols, which are designed to help ensure the highest levels of safety and integrity at Women's EURO 2025.

For managing concussion, that means treating head injuries according to best practice standards, putting the health and well-being of the individual player first and implementing the established "recognise, report and remove" procedure.

The anti-doping charter is an agreement to educate all players and staff on anti-doping procedures and the latest prohibited substances. During the tournament, all teams and players will be subject to UEFA's comprehensive testing and analysis. Two players from each team will be chosen at random for testing at every match, with tests also taking place at team base camps around training sessions.

As part of UEFA's ongoing work into research around injuries to female players, teams will also submit injury data, which will help us to assess the pattern and severity of injuries, improve wider understanding and ultimately, decrease injury rates and improve player care.

As part of UEFA's Get Trained, Save Lives campaign, squads will also be able to take cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training, learning vital skills that can restart a heart and help to save a life.

More than 200,000 people across Europe have already joined the campaign, with 40,000 fans taking the opportunity at fan zones in Germany at EURO 2024. At EURO 2025, there will be two mobile CPR booths travelling around the eight fan zones.

Building on the successful strategic Environment, Sustainability and Governance (ESG) framework deployed for EURO 2024, our ambition for 2025 is to organise a tournament to the highest sustainability standards, in full alignment with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and our Football Sustainability Strategy 2030.

Consequently, the match schedule has been planned to reduce team travel during the group phase, giving teams the opportunity to travel by train or coach within Switzerland.

In a further effort to reduce the tournament’s climate impact, all match ticket holders will be offered free public transport when travelling within the country. 

At this week's finalists' workshop, we presented our sustainability plan to team staff and explained how their help and cooperation can help us hit these targets, and how we are supporting their needs.

As with other recent tournaments, this will include protecting players, teams and staff from online abuse, with a dedicated platform to monitor, report and remove unacceptable instances of abuse or discrimination.

A dedicated session on host cities and tournament promotions gave delegates a glimpse of the tournament's fan zones. All eight host cities will have a fan zone, offering public viewing areas, live entertainment, concerts, food stalls, activations and collaborations with local football clubs.

With 544,000 tickets already sold for Women’s EURO 2025, these fan zones are set to enhance the spectator experience and create an unforgettable atmosphere during the tournament.