The German FA (DFB) confirmed on Friday that 18 cities and stadiums "expressed interest in hosting Euro 2024 matches by the noon deadline that it had set for them to do so," according to DW. The cities are: Berlin (Olympiastadion), Bremen (Weserstadion), Dortmund (Signal Iduna Park), Dresden (DDV-Stadion), Düsseldorf (ESPRIT Arena), Frankfurt (Commerzbank-Arena), Freiburg (new stadium planned), Gelsenkirchen (VELTINS-Arena), Hamburg (Volksparkstadion), Hanover (HDI Arena), Kaiserslautern (Fritz-Walter-Stadion), Karlsruhe (Wildparkstadion), Cologne (RheinEnergiestadion), Leipzig (Red Bull Arena), Mönchengladbach (Borussia-Park), Munich (Allianz Arena), Nuremberg (Stadion Nürnberg) and Stuttgart (Mercedes-Benz Arena). The DFB and any other applicants have until March 3 to "officially declare their interest in hosting Euro 2024" to UEFA. The list of applicants "is to be unveiled by UEFA one week later." So far, the "only other country to publicly express interest in holding the tournament has been Turkey." The DFB is to announce in September "which 10 of the cities and stadiums will be part" of its official bid to host Euro 2024 (DW, 2/17). The AP reported DFB President Reinhard Grindel said that Germany can have a "cost-effective and sustainable" tournament as "hardly a hectare would need to be sealed off for construction work." The DFB will work with Transparency Int'l to choose the 10 cities. The DFB will present the requirements to the potential host cities on April 11, and those still interested "must submit their final applications by June 12" (AP, 2/17). REUTERS' Karolos Grohmann reported the DFB said that of those 18, "15 meet" a UEFA requirement of at least 30,000 seats. Freiburg and Karlsruhe have planned capacity increases, but Dresden's 25,000-seat stadium "does not meet the standards" (REUTERS, 2/17).