Editorial of the “World”. Is this really reasonable? The Euro Football 2021 semi-finals (July 6-7) and the final (July 11) will be played in London at a packed Wembley stadium, as the spread of the SARS-CoV Delta variant -2 takes worrying proportions in England.
The situation invites questions about the organization of the competition by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). From the start, this proved to be unsuitable for the health situation. It was Michel Platini, former president of the governing body of European football, who had the idea of this Euro exploded in eleven cities, from Baku to Glasgow, via Copenhagen. For the 60th anniversary of the competition, the aim was to give countries the opportunity to host it at least once in their history. The pandemic has turned this generous idea into a health puzzle.
UEFA dreamed of making the event, already postponed for a year due to Covid-19, the symbol of a return to the sporting life of before. Caution would have liked the ambitions of the initial formula to be revised downwards depending on the health context. However, for questions of image, the competition was keen to encourage whole crowds of supporters to crisscross Europe, which has thus become an ideal playground for the circulation of the virus. Worse, the authority exerted pressure on the host cities to maintain minimum gauges in the stadiums, despite the evolution of the pandemic.
Lack of consistency
These requirements have thus led Dublin and Bilbao to give up organizing matches. Seville, London and St. Petersburg shared those initially planned in the Irish capital. In Russia, Finnish supporters were at the origin of a source of contamination. On their return, faced with the surge in the number of cases, the mayor of Helsinki gave up lifting the health restrictions as planned. At the same time, the Scottish authorities report 2,000 contaminations of people linked to the Euro. In question, the mixing of population in but, especially, near the stadiums.
The health protocol has sometimes sinned by lack of consistency. If officials and journalists were required to wear the mask, on the other hand, in the gallery, the public was vaguely called to order on the barrier gestures by giant screen interposed, with the success that one imagines. In addition, there are unclear recommendations concerning anti-Covid tests and very random checks at land borders as well as at the entrance to certain stadiums.
As for the audience gauges, the pandemic was obviously not the priority criterion. UEFA has determined that for the last three matches in London the limit will be 60,000 spectators, or 75% of the stadium’s capacity. The body refused to have its conduct dictated by the WHO, the European Commission, the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, or even the President of the Italian Council, Mario Draghi, while all expressed reservations on a such human concentration in a country where the epidemic is starting again.
The only concession is that the number of non-British supporters will be limited, since quarantine has been imposed on them, preventing them from attending the last four. This comprehensible decision in terms of health is much less so in sporting terms, outrageously favoring the England team. She finally played a Euro almost exclusively at home. Decidedly, the European football festival dreamed of by Michel Platini will have struggled to keep its promises.