High prices have Nordic fans feeling the pinch at Women’s Euro 2025

THUN – Football fans from the Nordic region are well-used to paying high prices back home, so when they start raising an eyebrow at the prices at the ongoing Women’s European Championship in Switzerland, the rest of the world tends to sit up and take notice. 

Many fans from all over the continent have been shocked at the eye-watering expenses of food, drinks and accommodation in Switzerland.

Supporters of Norway and Iceland, who met in Thun in their final Group A game on Thursday and saw a thrilling match end 4-3 in favour of the Norwegians, have also been feeling the pinch. 

“The beer is cheaper than Norway but everything else is more expensive. The beer is most important, so that’s what I’m measuring everything else by,” Martinus Naalsund, brother of Norway player Lisa, told Reuters. “My vacation money barely, barely covers it – if they make it to the final, my sister will have to pay!” he added.

Iceland fan Steinar Bergsson said: “This is the only place we could go outside of Iceland and it’s still around the same price, because Iceland is so expensive as well.”

According to Eurostat, the statistics office of the European Union, Switzerland is the most expensive country in Europe for consumer goods and services, with Iceland second and Norway fifth, behind Denmark and Ireland. 

England midfielder Georgia Stanway had described the cost of living in Switzerland as “extremely high” – saying that players are paying to help ensure friends and family can support them. “A lot of us are putting our hands in our pockets to make sure that our families can get over there,” she said.

Group A featured Nordic sides Norway, Finland and Iceland, as well as hosts Switzerland, so all four sets of fans are used to shelling out when going to football matches. 

A hot dog at the stadium in Thun cost eight Swiss francs (S$12.90) while beers and French fries are priced at six francs. 

Naalsund and his friends, Marius Selbekk and Simon Bergsvik, have been paying an average of €100 (S$149.80) per person, per night for a triple room as they travelled around Switzerland following Norway's group-stage campaign, and they have stayed in some strange places.

“Some of the rooms are quite nice but one night we stayed in what was previously a prison; it was a prison cell in Lucerne, so it was a prison bed, you know, and they had bars on the windows,” Selbekk explained. 

“There was even a sign saying ‘Respect the other inmates’.”

Snaebjorn Arnasson said before the July 10 game that the expenses of the trip to Switzerland would be worth it if his relative, Iceland captain Glodis Viggosdottir, could manage a goal against the Norwegians before both they headed home after the group stage. 

“Glodis is a big star back home in Iceland, this is my first time seeing her play at a major tournament, so if we’re all going home tomorrow, we may as well get a goal from her,” he said.

Arnasson got his wish when Viggosdottir scored a stoppage-time penalty in her side’s 4-3 loss to the group winners, and she empathised with the Icelandic fans after the final whistle.

“For us (players), we don’t notice it but I think for the fans, they would probably have preferred it to be somewhere else, because when you go abroad, usually if you’re from Iceland, you usually save a lot of money, but people have not really been saving money here, I guess,” she told Reuters.

“(Their support) means everything to us... we are a small country but we have a massive heart and that just shows through our fans as well.” REUTERS