Why is there no 2pm game at Euro 2024? UEFA scheduling explained as fans baffled

Your boss is less likely to catch you watching football at your desk on Tuesday because there isn't a Euro 2024 game scheduled for 2pm GMT.

Fans have quickly got used to being able to catch three fixtures a day during the opening of the tournament in Germany, with early games taking place on Saturday (Hungary vs Switzerland), Sunday (Slovenia vs Denmark) and Monday (Romania vs Ukraine).

But Tuesday will only have two fixtures from the group stages played, as the matches between Turkey and Georgia and Portugal and the Czech Republic kick off at 5pm GMT and 8pm GMT respectively.

Fear not though, because the schedule will soon go back to three games a day for the matches on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Then from Sunday we get to the final group stage matches which have to be played simultaneously for reasons of fair play. Both Group A matches are played on Sunday night, both of Group B's are on Monday, and then Groups C and D are next Tuesday and E and F are next Wednesday.

But why only two games this Tuesday then?

France beat Germany 1-0 on the first Tuesday of Euro 2020

Lessons from history

Well the fact is, this is nothing new. Each of the last two Euros have only had two matches on the first Tuesday of the tournament. At Euro 2020 Portugal beat Hungary 3-0 in Budapest, and France beat Germany 1-0 in Munich.

Then back at Euro 2016, the first Tuesday saw Hungary beat Austria 2-0 in Bordeaux, while eventual winners Portugal were held to a 1-1 draw by Iceland in Saint-Etienne.

Back at Euro 2012 though, two games a day was the norm. The tournament started with co-hosts Poland drawing 1-1 with Greece before Russia beat Czech Republic later that evening, and then the fixtures proceeded in that fashion until the group stage finished.

Euro 2012 only had two games a day throughout the group stages

So why the change now?

The simple difference between the tournaments since Euro 2012 is that it has been expanded from 16 teams to 24, and the opening fixture was moved to a standalone event to begin proceedings on the first Friday.

This time around it was Germany who began the tournament with their 5-1 win over Scotland, while in the delayed Euro 2020, held all around Europe, Italy beat Turkey 3-0 in Rome.

So with 36 group stage matches scheduled - six groups of six teams - moving this opening fixture to the Friday means that all of the others move up, and putting two games on the first Tuesday effectively resets it, and means we can quickly get back to enjoying three games a day.

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