Revealed: The potential cost the Lionesses will have to pay out of their own pocket for loved ones to watch them in the group stages of Euro 2025

A study has shown how much each member of England 's Euro 2025 squad may have to pay individually to have loved ones fly out and stay to watch them in Switzerland.
The European Championship holders begin the defence of their title next month in a daunting Group D which also contains France, Netherlands and Wales.
On Wednesday, it was revealed that England players are contributing their own money to help cover the cost of bringing family members to Switzerland, due to the country's high cost of living.
Four Swiss cities - Zurich, Geneva, Basel and Bern - ranked among the top 10 most expensive cities globally last year, behind only Hong Kong and Singapore. The average price for a pint of milk is as high as £1.67. England will be playing in Zurich as well as another host city in St. Gallen.
The FA are providing England players with a financial contribution to support the travel and accommodation expenses of their families.
The sum is comparable to what was provided for the 2023 Women's World Cup in Australia, and it matches the amount given to the men's team.
And She Kicks have calculated the full cost of what the group stage for travel and accommodation could be for England players if they paid the full whack themselves.
England's camp for the tournament will be in Zurich with two of their matches there.
She Kicks, with its data taken on Thursday, report that a flight from London to Zurich on July 1 will cost around £150 for two people.
If the unthinkable happens and England are knocked out at the group stages, then their tournament would end on July 13. And a flight back that day currently costs £120-per-person.
While the flight prices may not seem too unreasonable to some, the accommodation may not be. She Kicks add that prices for hotel in Zurich throughout the whole group stage in itself (with the first game starting on July 2 and ending on July 13) costing between £1,000-1,300 for one room.
If there is some, in the loosest sense, comfort for England their game in St. Gallen against Wales is a short one-hour bus journey - therefore saving the need for another hotel.
Speaking about their predicament on Wednesday, England midfielder Georgia Stanway said: 'I'm aware that Switzerland is a very expensive country. Even just for flights, hotels, the cost of living there is extremely high, so we understand the demand it is on fans. And I think that's difficult for us as well because we want to help and support as much as possible.
'A lot of us are putting our hands in our pockets to make sure that our families can get over there. We would love to see as many fans as possible, and we want to thank them in advance because we know it's not cheap.'
Team-mate Ella Toone added: 'I think it will be a bit difficult for players' families who are staying out for the whole tournament. I know that I'll always help my family be out there and make memories with us.'

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The Guardian

2 hours ago

• The Guardian

‘A perfect storm': multi-club ownership, Crystal Palace and a looming court threat

In the waterfront offices of Uefa's House of European Football headquarters in Nyon, the legal team are preparing for an unwanted trip around Lake Geneva to Lausanne. Over the course of many internal meetings since Crystal Palace inadvertently provided Uefa with the toughest test yet of its multi-club ownership (MCO) rules by winning the FA Cup, it has become increasingly clear the ultimate arbiter on the issue is likely to be the court of arbitration for sport (Cas). 'We're going to find out if our MCO rules stand up to scrutiny as, one way or another, it looks like we're going to Cas,' says one source at Uefa, resigned to the issue of whether Palace can compete in next season's Europa League being placed in the hands of that Lausanne court. Uefa has been liaising closely with Palace, with sources claiming the issue of John Textor's dual shareholding in the club and Lyon – who qualified for the Europa League by finishing sixth in Ligue 1 – was flagged by the governing body long before the 1 March deadline for resolving MCO issues. The American is in advanced discussions over selling his 44.9% stake in Palace to the New York Jets owner, Woody Johnson, which may help the club's cause, although there is no prospect of the deal being completed before Uefa has to make a decision. The case is emblematic of the confusion surrounding club ownership and the regulatory issues facing the sport, and Uefa has delayed a ruling until the related case of Lyon's financial problems has been resolved. The DNCG – French football's financial watchdog – is auditing Lyon's accounts after imposing a provisional relegation to Ligue 2 last year owing to the club's debt levels, with a final outcome expected next week. Relegation and a ban from European competition for Lyon would make Uefa's life a lot easier, although both seem unlikely. 'It's a perfect storm,' says a sympathetic figure at another club. 'Everything that could go wrong from Uefa's point of view has done. We have three clubs involved [Palace, Lyon and Brøndby, who are owned by the Palace shareholder David Blitzer], and two multi-club groups. There's a complex ownership group at Palace who don't appear to communicate very well, and a surprise FA Cup winner. Not to mention Lyon's financial issues. You couldn't make it up really.' Palace sources acknowledge they are working with Uefa amid belief on both sides that an accommodation is wanted, but two factors beyond either party's control could count against them. First, Cas last month upheld Fifa's decision to expel the Mexican club León from the Club World Cup because they are part of the same ownership group as another qualifier, Pachuca. The owner, Grupo Pachuca, had attempted to park its León shareholding in a separate trust but this move did not satisfy Fifa or Cas. In another complication Nottingham Forest, who will be moved from the Conference League to the Europa League if Palace are kicked out, may go to Cas if denied that promotion. A source close to Forest's owner, Evangelos Marinakis, told the Guardian the Greek billionaire was opposed to many of the moves to regulate football and was prepared to take on Uefa. There are clear financial incentives to do so. Whereas Chelsea earned £21m in prize money from winning the Conference League in the past season, Tottenham's Europa League triumph could be worth well over £100m because it also delivered a Champions League place. Palace are worried the León ruling has set a precedent that could work against them. At Uefa there is a feeling that it would rather face Forest at Cas than have its multi-club framework tested in court by Palace. One figure at a European team with direct experience of multi-club contortions believes Uefa will give Palace every opportunity to pass muster, concurring that the governing body's regulations could be brought tumbling down in the event Textor and company mounted a challenge. An examination brought about by Forest would, they suggested, give the existing rules a far better chance of holding firm. Confirmation by Cas this week of the League of Ireland side Drogheda's expulsion from the Conference League owing to a multi-club breach has heightened concerns in Nyon, but the cases are different. Drogheda had qualified by winning the Irish Cup last November yet their owner, Trivela Group, failed to meet Uefa's March deadline, and unlike Textor the American investors are majority owners of two clubs: Drogheda and Denmark's Silkeborg. Uefa had caused disquiet in some quarters by shifting that deadline forward from last year's June date. Some figures involved in club acquisition have expressed surprise that Drogheda were not able to win their case at Cas. 'Uefa are trying to be flexible, but the Fifa v Club León case is making it harder for them,' a source said. 'Cas upheld Fifa's rules, which are very similar to Uefa's, so the precedent is there. The Cas ruling was based on the nature of the blind trust and the importance of the regulatory process – ie dates and deadlines. To put it simply Palace haven't complied, but Uefa want to make it work.' There is some acknowledgment at Uefa that elements of its MCO rules are not fit for purpose, although it would prefer to redraft them in Nyon than put them at the mercy of the court. There is nothing in Article 5 of Uefa's rules detailing whether Palace or Brøndby should be given precedence if both end up in next season's Conference League, for example. In ordinary circumstances it would be Brøndby by virtue of their higher league position, as stated in the rules, but Palace could also have a claim if parachuted in from the more prestigious Europa League. Sign up to Football Daily Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football after newsletter promotion Uefa's MCO rules have been in place without many revisions for 24 years, although one significant change was made 12 months ago when the regulations were relaxed to permit a club part of a multi-ownership group to compete in a different competition. Article 5 was drafted in 2001 after a legal challenge from Tottenham's owner, Enic, the first multi-club operation in the Premier League, after AEK Athens were blocked from taking part in the 1998-99 Uefa Cup because their sister club Slavia Prague had also qualified. The initial rule stated that 'control or influence' over more than one club was not allowed, but it was not tested until 2017 when RB Leipzig and Red Bull Salzburg qualified for the Champions League, which led to the wording being altered to 'decisive influence'. What had been a rare occurrence is now an annual problem for Uefa, with Aston Villa, Brighton and Toulouse allowed to play in Europe during the 2023-24 season only when their owners put more distance between them and Vitória de Guimarães, Union Saint-Gilloise and Milan respectively. The same issue affected Manchester City and Girona as well as Manchester United and Nice a year later. The fact that neither Girona nor Manchester United joined their partner clubs in qualifying for next season's European competitions may have kicked a further conundrum down the road. Their respective ownership groups were allowed what was, in theory, a short-term exemption last season by placing one of their clubs' shares in a blind trust until 1 July this year. One club owner wonders how Uefa would have responded if those sides had reached the same tournament for a second consecutive year. It is unclear whether they would have been allowed to roll over into a further 12 months of blind trust holding. Multi-club ownership is growing constantly; figures shared with the Guardian by the MCO Insights consultancy suggest more than 800 top- and second-tier clubs could be involved by 2030. That would roughly double the current number. By that point it would surely be uncontrollable by current rules. Simon Leaf, head of sport at the law firm Mishcon de Reya, believes Uefa and other governing bodies need clearer regulations to avoid being repeatedly taken to court. 'We are seeing an increasing number of clubs looking to use various legal avenues – in particular, competition law – to try to challenge regulations that they dislike,' Leaf says. 'This trend is likely to continue, making it much harder for leagues and governing bodies to regulate their competitions. 'On the Palace matter it is hard to have too much sympathy with Uefa given they already showed themselves to be willing to bend their own rules on MCOs last summer – and despite their efforts to strengthen the regulations since then, the bar has now been set. 'Either way, MCOs are not going away, and so football's governing bodies need to find a way to properly deal with these issues so that they are dealt with in the boardroom rather than the courtroom.'

Reuters

14 hours ago

• Reuters

Fan gets three-year ban for racially abusing player on Instagram

June 20 (Reuters) - A fan who racially abused former Tamworth striker Chris Wreh after the fifth-tier club's FA Cup defeat to Tottenham Hotspur has been banned from attending matches for three years, the Football Association said on Friday. Harry Dunbar, of John Bunyan Close in Whiteley, admitted to sending a racist message to Wreh, who is Black, via Instagram after losing a bet on the match, which Tamworth lost 3-0 to Tottenham in the FA Cup third round on 12 January. Dunbar, 20, was sentenced at Portsmouth Magistrates Court on Wednesday. In addition to the banning order, Dunbar will serve a 12-month Community Order of 200 hours unpaid work and 10 Rehabilitation Activity Requirement days. "We welcome the decision of Portsmouth Magistrates' Court to impose a three-year football banning order on Harry Dunbar," the FA said in a statement. "We hope that this ruling sends a clear message that incidents of discrimination – whether in person or online – will not be tolerated, and that strong action will be taken against perpetrators of this unacceptable behaviour." Wreh refused to play for the National League side following the incident. He wrote on X, opens new tab, two days after the match that though he had the support of manager Andy Peaks, he was "disappointed" the club had not made a public statement condemning the abuse he had suffered.

Times

14 hours ago

• Times

My hack for a family hiking holiday? Take the ski lifts in the Swiss Alps

A week before our hiking holiday in the Swiss Alps, I realised we might have a problem. We'd driven out into the Kentish countryside for a short walk — barely a stroll — through dappled woodlands and across a sunny meadow, as a test run of attire and attitudes. The scene couldn't have been prettier, the temperature more pleasant, the snacks more bountiful, but barely 15 minutes in: mutiny. 'We hate walking!' my children erupted. 'We're too tired! Can we go back now, this is horrible!' Their dad and I exchanged looks, and reached for the Mentos (nothing hastens pace like sweet bribery). This bucolic romp was nothing compared with what we had planned for the following week's summer holiday. We were headed for the Swiss Alps, for a self-guided, multiday hike, carrying all our kit, taking in high mountains up to almost 3,000m, with no chance of pressing pause as we'd be moving on each day to a different hotel in the next valley. We did have a trick up our Gore-Tex sleeves, though, a holiday and parenting hack to make this kind of challenge possible even for whingy bairns whose legs ache — honest they do — after ten minutes on a flat path. And that was ski lifts. They continue to whirr in summer in increasing numbers of Alpine resorts, in a bid for year-round tourism in the face of climate change, helping mountain bikers and hikers scale high peaks that kiss the plan was to take advantage, riding up then walking down, making it far easier for the children (if not our ageing knees). Lenzerheide, an upmarket, under-the-radar Swiss mountain town, was our starting point, a three-hour drive north from Milan airport (Zurich is closer), where we hired a car. Through Italian lakes traffic we skirted south of Lake Como, stopped for pizza by Lake Lugano, then drove up into the vivid green foothills of the Swiss region of Graubünden, where the road turned snakey and the high mountains reared into view. That our first stay, the Lenzerhorn hotel, had an indoor pool meant the children — Heidi, ten, and Hamish, eight — were on board with the holiday from the off, and didn't complain about putting on their hiking boots next morning as we set out past chic boutiques selling designer skiwear and elegant leather boots to ride the PostBus (the service that links even the remotest Swiss villages) a mile along the teal-green Heidsee lake to the Rothorn Bahn cable car. Among dirt-spattered mountainbikers in bulky body armour, here for the bike parks and trails that weave down the mountainsides, we hopped aboard the gondola and watched them from above as we swung up into wispy cloud, until rows of icy peaks and turquoise lakes spread before us. From the bare-rock crest of Parpaner Rothorn (2,861m), once a centre of iron ore mining, and from where they say you can spot a thousand other peaks, we would descend northeast to Arosa. A not-small amount of meticulous plotting and planning, and a few evenings spent poring over maps, had gone into our self-designed route. Because while various tour operators arrange Alpine hiking holidays, none exactly fitted our specifications, with a downhill focus and special places to stay. We know the Alps well, and what we came up with was, I think, a brilliant five-day plan through blockbuster scenery, covering 4-8 miles every day, going from Lenzerheide to Arosa, to a mountain refuge in the Sapün Valley, over to Davos, then looping back via a slightly different route. During that first descent, all the natural elements that make an Alpine holiday so wonderful soon burst forth between the crags: green bee-buzzed pastures, clouds of butterflies, tiny wildflowers in so many shades our game of taking turns to spot something of each colour of the rainbow was too easy. Other games of guess the animal and 'granny went shopping' passed the time. I relished hours just talking to my children, and they liked having our attention, even if my son, who had recently discovered Minecraft, only wanted to discuss that. For hours. At least the views were riveting while my education on Piglins and Villagers ensued. After three miles we came upon Älplisee, a lake of the brightest blue, cold as ice and so shiveringly delicious to swim in that after following the path along the shore we had another dip at the other end. Why not? Carrying all our stuff on our backs meant our swimwear and trek towels were always to hand. Down and down, and then another unexpected treat — a mountain inn of dreams, Alpenblick, neat and chic like most in Switzerland, with a sun deck serving joyous slabs of berry tart (£7) and a local unfiltered beer ( I'm not sure the children had even noticed they were on a hiking holiday yet. • Discover our full guide to Switzerland The inn had rooms but our beds awaited down in the valley in Arosa, at a converted TB sanatorium — there were dozens in the area in the early 1900s. Revamped as the cool Faern hotel in December 2022, it featured globular lighting, abstract grey/black art, and brass and matte black fittings in place of medical wipe-down white. Wes Anderson but monochrome was the voguish effect. Alpine walking holidays traditionally mean refuge dorms and basic family-run farmhouses where gingham was the last design feature introduced. I'll never forget, years before, the dishevelled hiker washing his feet in the only bathroom basin at the Theodulhutte above Zermatt, sticking his toes right up inside the tap we needed to use to brush our teeth, or the offer to kip on hay bales in a cobwebby barn in Austria's Wilder Kaiser region for an 'authentic farmstay experience'. These days the Alps have become rich pickings for stylish, contemporary hotels — some upmarket spas, others reinventions of cute wooden chalets made luxe. It was to one of these we were headed next on our shortest walk, three and a half miles, but the greatest climb (555m) — though only after a sweetener of a swim in the Faern's indoor lazy river and a game on its tennis courts to keep the kids onside. • Best hotels in Switzerland They marched out into the sun, revived and, dare I say, even excited for the hike ahead. Beside Lake Obersee, where holidaymakers were out on pedalos as if it were the Med, we caught a little red train 15 minutes down the valley to Langwies, watching it curl back on itself as it looped over a viaduct. Our path rose through a forest full of butterflies and unfamiliar bees, purple scabious and clover, the ground crunching with pinecones. We ate our Co-op picnic on a bench above a steeply sloping field at 1,695m at Egga, supplementing our plastic punnet of supermarket strawberries with handfuls of wild ones plucked beside the path: 'These taste much nicer — and they're free!' Heidi said. We were up in the high pastures now, steep grassy meadows full of grazing cows, peppered with small enclaves once dedicated to farming. In Sapün, a tiny, seemingly deserted hamlet of centuries-old chalets, like a living museum, I paused to photograph the sweet wooden schoolhouse, dating to 1849, and a vending machine selling fresh local cheese, then sneezed. 'Gesundheit!' someone called from inside one of the sunbaked buildings. Beyond a farm where the workers were hand-cutting grass for straw was Heimeli, a 300-year-old wooden chalet turned into one of the cutest guesthouses in the Alps and possibly the world — our enchanting base for the night. After the hours of hot, sweaty uphill, it was sweet relief to plonk ourselves at one of the terrace tables among potted edelweiss, order Heimeli's own craft beers and homemade soft drinks flavoured with mountain herbs and, like at every stop, get out the playing cards — the kids never tired of Shithead. A garden opposite provided more fun, with a hammock and swing, a slack line and an elf-sized chalet wendy house hung with felt toadstools and gonks. While the kids played there, we settled in to relax on the terrace, before the owner, Vita Gabriella, showed me inside. Heimeli itself was like a slightly larger wendy house, with low wooden ceilings, antiques, chairs with loveheart cutouts and ladders leading to compact spaces — a cellar with shelves of Crocs to borrow, a bar/museum in a phonebox-sized indoor pigsty, and ten guestrooms, including singles and our quad. She told me that they used to pack seven people into each room on the floor, but she had moved the place upmarket after taking it on with her husband in 2007. This had been a dream come true, thanks to a surprise payout from an investment her husband had made — somewhat reluctantly — in the company he worked for in order to help save it. 'We are both from poor backgrounds, but suddenly we had a million,' she said. 'We didn't know what to do with it. A friend said to me, 'You are a rich woman, what did you dream of doing with that kind of money?' I realised — 'Oh, I would love to buy Heimeli!' It had been for sale for three years then. We thought we'd run it for ten years, but here we still are.' The result could not have been more atmospheric, and dinner was a feast: rösti, macaroni prettied up with edible flowers, kid-pleasing burgers, homemade wild berry ice cream (mains from £21), so too breakfast, with homemade bircher and jams. I could've stayed for a week, if not for ever. A storm was forecast for lunchtime the next day, and we knew we needed an early start to get up over the exposed Strelapass before it hit. The path became greyer and more grinding as the clouds built, pouring over the sky like dry ice. The rain came down as we reached the the top at 2,352m, so we sheltered in the Strela Pass Restaurant (more Shithead) before hotfooting it down the other side towards Davos. A crack of lightning made us terrifyingly aware of being out on the exposed rocky tops, the kids went wild with storm fever/fear, screaming and laughing all the way down until a final hungry trudge through forest brought the spate of whingeing we'd long been waiting for. At least a cosy hotel, the simple Edelweiss, greeted us in Davos, a larger town, today devoid of world leaders and of quite so much character as the other stops. From here an exciting funicular, the Parsennbahn, took us up to the Weissfluhjoch at 2,686m and we came across patches of snow big enough to supply a family snowball flight that of course ended in tears. But the children seemed to be generally ecstatic to be exploring these landscapes, scrambling over them as if they were an adventure playground, jumping from rocks, dipping their hands in streams, running for no reason and pointing out the marmots we constantly heard whistling. Shockingly, they never even asked for sweets. • The best places to visit in Switzerland Swimming helped maintain the good vibes. The path back to Langwies through the rumpled folds of the Fondei Valley descended beside the charging Fondeier Bach river and we skinny-dipped in hectic pools, crossing narrow bridges beside waterfalls at the foot of the gorge that was, for now, more impressive than anything Minecraft could create.'Look around, this is amazing!' Heidi yelled — music to her parents' ears. And back in Arosa, after another night at the Faern, we spent the morning in the town swimming lake, Untersee — a natural municipal lido with diving boards, an inflatable platform with slide, play areas and 1930s wooden changing rooms, all for £4.50, or free with an Arosa Card that came with our hotel sort of facility is not uncommon in the Alps, convincing me that those who are born in the region have won the geographical lottery of life. One last gondola, Urdenfürggli, and a long sunny descent, and we were back at the start in Lenzerheide. What a sense of achievement! What a thrill to return to the same hotels, feeling changed by adventure, though it had only been a few days! What blisters! The children had had a look of joy on their faces almost the entire time. They had giggled madly together. We'd bonded. I had learnt much about Piglins. So how did they feel about walking holidays now? 'We hate them,' they said. But all the smiley photos, and their proud expressions when we totted up our stats — some 30 miles of walking — they told a different story… Gemma Bowes was a guest of Switzerland Tourism ( and the Lenzerhorn hotel, which has B&B doubles from £229 ( the Faern Arosa Altein, with B&B doubles from £177 ( Heimeli, with B&B doubles from £172 ( and Edelweiss, with B&B doubles from £122 ( Fly to Milan or Zurich