No Longer Supporting Euro Held Pan-continental, UEFA President: Unpleasant, Unfair To Supporters

JAKARTA - UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin insists he will no longer support the idea of the Euro being held on a pan-continental basis as it was held this year because he thinks it will cause losses for teams and supporters who have to fly thousands of kilometers between matches.

Euro 2020 will be held in 11 cities and countries, where London will host two semifinal matches and the final which was originally set to bring together Italy vs England on Sunday, 11 July tomorrow.

Throughout the tournament, the participating teams and their supporters had to fly to the outskirts of the continent such as Baku in Azerbaijan which was marked by various logistical shortages.

"If you ask me, I won't support it anymore. I think it's too challenging, in an unpleasant sense that some teams have to travel up to 10,000 km while some teams are only a thousand km," Ceferin told the BBC. Sport as quoted by Antara from Reuters on Friday.

"It's also unfair to the fans. Some have to be in Rome, then a few days later they fly 4.5 hours to Baku.

"This is really difficult, obviously an interesting idea but difficult to implement. I don't think we will do it again," he added.

The pan-continental hosting of Euro 2020 is a legacy of Ceferin's predecessor UEFA president Michel Platini, who in 2012 called the event a romantic celebration to mark the 60th anniversary of the tournament's birth.

Even after being delayed a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which had sparked the discourse of changing the format to only one country, Euro 2020 was still held in 11 different cities and countries causing real losses for some of the participating teams.

Wales, for example, had to play in Baku twice before flying to Rome for their final group stage game and then returning to Amsterdam for the last 16 matches.

Wales defender Chris Gunter criticized UEFA over the format of this time's Euro after his country's elimination, calling the tournament a "joking arrangement".

"Every country has fans everywhere (and Wales doesn't) except for 350 people who broke government rules and broke into their own accounts to be able to come to support life, you and we deserve more than just a tournament with this prank setup," Gunter said on Instagram. personally, @chrisgunter2.

Euro 2024 is scheduled to take place in Germany after the country beat Turkey in the bidding for the hosts, with matches scheduled to take place in 10 cities.