Wednesday June 23, 2021
Update
UEFA’s next wish fulfilled
British are lifting quarantine for EM VIPs
Despite the virus variant and the increase in corona infections: The British government is changing its quarantine rules for UEFA. VIP guests are now allowed to enter the European Football Championship without observing a quarantine. So nothing stands in the way of the final in London.
The European Football Union (UEFA) has had its next wish fulfilled: The British government has softened the country’s corona rules for the association’s VIP guests. Accordingly, people who have received a “Euro 2020 invitation” are allowed to enter without a quarantine that is actually in force. You no longer need to self-isolate or quarantine in a hotel to attend any of the games.
The list of those who are allowed to circumvent the quarantine restrictions includes members of the UEFA Executive Board, members of the FIFA Council and executives of the companies sponsoring the 2020 European Football Championship. Two more round of 16, as well as the semi-finals and the final of the European Championship will take place in London.
Media, Digital, Culture and Sport Minister John Whittingdale told Sky News that “there will be some people who make it to the semi-finals and finals of the tournament” but they will be “under strict restrictions on what they can do.” anything else we can do, and we have measured these things very carefully “. In addition, it is only about “a very limited number of people” who would only come for one game. His reasoning: “We would not have been able to host the tournament at Wembley if we had not allowed the players and people connected to the teams to come here.”
The British government had already announced on Tuesday that more than 60,000 spectators would be allowed to attend the semi-finals and the final in London’s Wembley Stadium. This corresponds to a utilization of 75 percent. The semi-finals will take place on July 6th and 7th, the final on July 11th. In view of the delta variant of the corona virus prevailing in Great Britain, this decision angered many critics.
The German sports politician Dagmar Freitag said at Phoenix: “When I see the extent to which the Delta variant is rampant in Great Britain at the moment, I consider a decision to fill a stadium with 60,000 spectators to be simply irresponsible.” There is also criticism from the World Health Organization (WHO): They are “concerned about the easing of the restrictions”. David Nabarro, the special envoy for Covid-19, said one had to “ask real questions” about the admission of so many fans despite the rising number of cases in the UK.
The Times recently speculated that England could lose the playoffs if Britain did not approve exemptions for VIP guests. Budapest had emerged as a possible alternative. Around 60,000 fans are allowed there too, Wembley has already made up for this advantage of Hungary’s capital – and now the next hurdle has also been overcome.
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