Euro 2020 - 'It's not fair' - UEFA's Aleksander Ceferin refuses to support this summer's format in future tournaments
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Published 09/07/2021 at 13:57 GMT
UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin insists the Euro 2020 format will not be used again in future tournaments. The 12-city format, reduced to eleven due to the coronavirus pandemic, has split opinions with England enjoying all but one of their games at home but Wales required to travel to Baku.
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UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin believes the format for Euro 2020 is unfair and insisted it would not be repeated at future tournaments.
Euro 2020’s multiple city format was dreamed up by former president Michel Platini and there was originally meant to be 12 cities hosting games.
Dublin dropped out due to the coronavirus pandemic, but after home advantage teams did so well in the competition, Ceferin confirmed he was not a fan of the format.
"I would not support it anymore. I think it is too challenging and in a way not correct that some teams have to travel more than 10,000km and others 1000km," he said.
It is not fair to fans, who had to be in Rome one day and in Baku in the next 4.5 hours flight. It is in an interesting idea but hard to implement and I don’t think we will do it again.
England played every single group game at home at Wembley in front of their fans and were only required to travel to Rome for the quarter-final.
The other finalists, Italy, too played all their group games in Rome while other sides like Wales were required to travel to Baku for their group opener.
Some head coaches have complained about the structure of the tournament which offers home advantage to some sides and not to others.
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Marco Verratti was asked about England’s home advantage ahead of the final on Saturday and the Italy midfielder insisted his side could draw energy from the crowd too.
“The supporters will factor somehow, but we're all professional players,” he said.
We know what it is to play in fan packed stadiums and this will drive us as well.
“We will be happy about it too - it's great to play in a packed stadium.
“We face a very tough team, they will be playing at home, they know the stadium well, but it is a dream for us to win the European Championship.
“Now it's all down to the final, which I think will be an epic and history-making either way.
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“Moments such as this one might not come up again - we're all 100 per cent that these matches are there to be grabbed. We must win.
“We weren't given much credit abroad, but I think Italy is climbing back to the spot it belongs.”
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