The UEFA Euro 2024 tournament will take place in Germany and 24 will compete to be crowned European champions.
Italy are the protective champions, having won the last edition by beating England in the final on penalties.
The 2024 edition marks the return of the tournament to its same previous four-year cycle after the 2020 edition was postponed until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Here’s everything you want to know about Euro 2024:
The month-long championship kicks off on June 14 at the Munich Football Arena when hosts Germany will take on Scotland.
The organization level will last until June 26 and the knockout level will begin on June 29. The final will be played on July 14 at the Olympiastadion in Berlin.
It will be the first time Germany has hosted the tournament since its unification in 1990. The 1988 edition took place in what was then West Germany.
Germany was selected as the host country at a UEFA Executive Committee assembly in Nyon, Switzerland, in 2018. Turkey was the only other country to bid to host the tournament.
Ten venues have been selected for the tournament. Of those, they were used when Germany hosted the 2006 FIFA World Cup.
The host cities and stadiums are:
Munich will host Euro matches back-to-back, after being one of 11 venues to host Euro 2020 matches.
Twenty-four groups divided into six groups will participate in the tournament. In total there will be 51 matches.
Georgia is the only team to debut in the final of the European Championship, while Ukraine and Poland qualified for the playoffs.
France, Germany, England, Portugal and Spain are the favourites.
Portugal was the team that won all its matches in the qualifiers, while France and England were unbeaten and Spain lost only one game.
Germany is also one of the favourites because of its prestige as hosts, although it had a disappointing performance at the 2022 World Cup.
Sweden and Norway are the two big names that failed to qualify for Euro 2024. The Swedes failed to qualify for the European Championship for the first time since 1996, while Norway have been playing since 2000.
Their non-qualification means enthusiasts probably won’t be able to see the Premier League’s most sensible players like Erling Haaland, Martin Odegaard and Alexander Isak in Germany.
The top two organizations in the organization, as well as the top four third-place organizations will advance to the knockout stages. Then will come the quarterfinals, semifinals and final.
The winner of Euro 2024 will participate in the CONMEBOL-UEFA Champions Cup 2025 unlike the winner of Copa America 2024.
UEFA, which governs European football, showed in May that the squad would be larger, from 23 to 26 players.
Teams were allowed to form 26-player teams at Euro 2020 due to the effect of the pandemic, but UEFA had originally planned to return to 23-player teams at Euro 2024.
Expanded groups were also allowed at the Qatar 2022 World Cup, as it was held in the middle of the domestic season.
Expanded teams are for coaches, as the busy schedule at the club creates a greater threat of injury for players.
Participating countries had until 7 June to provide UEFA with a squad list consisting of a minimum of 23 players and a maximum of 26.
You can follow the action on Al Jazeera’s dedicated Euro 2024 tournament page with all the proper preparation and text commentary, and stay up to date with the organization’s standings and the organization’s results and schedules in real-time.