Official: San Marino to host the UEFA Regions' Cup 2024-25 final tournament

Yesterday, the San Marino Football Federation received confirmation from UEFA that the Republic of San Marino has been selected as the host nation for the final tournament of the 14th UEFA Regions' Cup. Among the three bids submitted, the decision was also influenced by the historic achievement of the NAT San Marino team, which topped its qualifying group with a perfect record last November. This came on top of the excellent organisation recently shown in staging the UEFA European Under-17 Championship Qualifying Round 1 and the Intermediate Round of the UEFA Regions' Cup itself – events that attracted multiple commendations from the European football confederation. Alongside NAT San Marino, the UEFA Regions' Cup final tournament will feature seven other regional representative teams from across Europe’s footballing landscape: Aragón (Spain), Dolnośląski Region (Poland), Hradec Králové (Czechia), Länsi-Vantaan Ylpeys (Finland), Rijeka Region (Croatia), Vaud (Switzerland) and FA of Vojvodina (Serbia). The tournament format, which will decide the European champions on Sammarinese soil, provides for eight teams to be split into two groups of four. The draw ceremony will also be held in San Marino next spring. What is already certain is that NAT San Marino – representing the host association – will be placed in position 1 of Group A. After the three matchdays in each group, the group winners will meet in the final to decide the 14th UEFA Regions' Cup. While the exact match dates are still to be confirmed, it has already been decided that the ten-day competition window will fall between 23 June and 5 July 2025. All matches in the competition will be played exclusively at venues in San Marino, with more than 300 people expected to attend as part of the delegations from the seven participating associations, together with UEFA staff and the match officials. This alone gives an indication of the impact on the country’s entire system, socially and economically, in the early weeks of next summer, not to mention the families and supporters travelling with the teams. In the previous twelve editions (the 2020-21 tournament was cancelled due to the pandemic), only Poland’s Dolnośląski have lifted the trophy twice (2018-19 and 2006-07). Italy, which has no representative in this season’s final tournament, leads the roll of honour together with Spain on three titles (two of which were won by Veneto), while the Republic of Ireland, Portugal, Croatia and Czechia each boast one continental triumph in the UEFA Regions' Cup. For NAT San Marino this will be a first-ever appearance in the final tournament of the competition, making it the twenty-seventh different nation to take part in the decisive week for the title.

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