Switzerland pulls off high-wire act as Euro 2025 delivers to the very last

Host country attracts record attendance and gives us a memorable spectacle in spite of its modest infrastructure

- Nick Ames

Twelve hours before Euro 2025 reached its crescendo the Uefa executive director of football, Giorgio Marchetti, addressed a hall of delegates in Basel. The morning coffees were still taking hold as officials from clubs, federations and other stakeholders settled down for a forum designed partly to debrief the previous month. There was a congratulatory mood and Marchetti was determined to see it last. The tournament would not be "like a butterfly, over in 24 hours", he said; its reverberations would be felt far into a burgeoning sport's future.

There was certainly little sign of any effects dulling as afterparties swung long into the night following England's heist against Spain.

The overwhelming sense was of euphoria, sprinkled with relief, that host and governing body had pulled off what some viewed as a high-wire act. Switzerland's relatively modest football infrastructure, and its muted appreciation of the women's game, had raised eyebrows but it staged an event that delivered to the last.

"It's a very strong image of Switzerland that has been shared with the whole world," the Swiss football association president, Dominique Blanc, said yesterday.

"It has exceeded our expectations as organiser and also the expectation of Uefa." All parties can reel off convincing figures. If Switzerland needed the money it can bask in 200 million francs (£186m) brought in through tourism by the European Championship. That is a direct consequence of the numbers that make Uefa particularly proud: a record attendance of more than 657,000; all bar two of the 31 games recorded as sellouts; the number of visiting supporters far exceeding those at previous editions.