EGLSF ELECTS CARDIFF, UK, AS EUROGAMES 2027 HOST CITY

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Erika Patrikainen
EGLSF General Secretary: erika.patrikainen@eglsf.info

The EGLSF announces CARDIFF, UK as EUROGAMES 2027 Host City

Amsterdam, The Netherlands (March 13, 2024) – On March 3, 2024, the EGLSF General Assembly elected member club Pride Sports Cymru‘s bid and the city of Cardiff, UK as hosts for our EuroGames 2027.

The bid cycle deadline for EuroGames 2027 closed in December 2023 at which time we had received
two bids: Cardiff, UK / Pride Sports Cymru‘s and Munich, Germany / M Team München.

Cardiff will be the first UK host city of LGBTQ+ inclusive EuroGames multi-sport event in 2027

"EuroGames 2027 is coming to Cardiff! Thank you to everyone who contributed to our bid and to EGLSF members who voted for us, we look forward to welcoming you to Cymru 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿" Pride Sports Cymru.

“We’re delighted to be bringing a EuroGames to Wales. It is a huge privilege for Pride Sports Cymru. Hosting a EuroGames is an opportunity to showcase Cardiff as a world-class sporting city, and to highlight Wales’ commitment to become the most LGBTQ+-friendly nation in Europe.” said Pride Sports director Lou Englefield.

Both cities presented extremely strong, well put together bid books and competed to host the EuroGames in 2027 in a tight voting of 60 to 59, defending two very high-quality presentations online to the EGLSF assembly.

The EGLSF board would like to thank both bidding cities for submitting excellent bids and setting a
very high bar for future EuroGames candidates.

EuroGames is Europe’s largest LGBTQI+ sport championship and occurs each year in a different
European city. EuroGames 2024 will take place in Vienna, Austria 17-20 July.

Reflecting on this year’s bids, Erika Patrikainen, EGLSF General Secretary says, “Thank you to
both bidders. The close result reflects well the difficulty of making the decision between them. Cardiff's win is historical in the sense that it will be the first time EuroGames takes place in the UK!

I'm also excited about that the AGA also gave our board a mandate to suspend the regular EuroGames bidding cycle for 2028 games, but instead to open an alternative cycle, the focus of which is to enable a EuroGames in the CEE region (Central & Eastern Europe) to be realised. I find it very important that the event takes place in different parts of Europe. The event impacts the participants at personal level and provides an excellent platform to discuss and tackle issues related to LGBTIQ+ people in sport. We see a growing trend in main stream sports organisations cooperating with EuroGames organisers. That dialogue is very valuable, but needs to be done at local level, and hence we need to take EuroGames everywhere in Europe.”

END.

NOTES TO EDITOR:

EGLSF Founded in 1989, The European Gay & Lesbian Sport Federation (EGLSF) aims include
combatting against discrimination in sport on grounds of sexual orientation, gender identity and expression and sex characteristics and to stimulate integration in sport and emancipation of LGBTIQ+ athletes. The federation has a membership of over 120 European LGBTIQ+ sports clubs and
organisations representing the interests of more than 22,000 people.

EGLSF licenses and governs the organisation of EuroGames, the annual European
LGBTQI+ sport championships. The first ever Games took place in The Hague in 1992, and the most
recent in Bern in July 2023 with 2,314 athletes taking part.