Picture Credit: Twitter
UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin has said he will not support the idea of a pan-continental European Championship again in the future as it is unfair to the teams as well as travelling fans to fly thousands of kilometres between matches. Euro 2020 has been held across 11 cities, with Wembley Stadium in London hosting the two semi-finals and Sunday's final between England and Italy. Still fans of different countries were forced to travel long distances to watch their teams play.
"If you ask me, I would not support it anymore. I think it's too challenging, it's in a way not correct that some teams have to travel more than 10,000 kilometres and the others 1,000 for example," said Ceferin.
"It's not fair to the fans. Some fans had to be in Rome and in a couple of days they had to be in Baku - a 4-1/2 hour flight. So it's a difficult one, it's an interesting idea but hard to implement. I don't think we will do it again," he added.
England played almost all of their games of Euro 2020 at Wembley
The format was called a "joke" by Wales defender Chris Gunter after his side were beaten in the last-16 by Denmark in Amsterdam, having travelled a total of 9,156km. They played their first two group games in Baku, Azerbaijan, before heading to Rome for their final group game. Meanwhile, finalists England and Italy both played their three group games at home in London and Rome respectively.
England, who also played their last-16 and semi-final games at Wembley have only travelled 3,874km in the tournament, for their quarter-final against Ukraine in Rome.
Italy, who played their last-16 game at Wembley before going to Munich for their quarter-final win over Belgium, and returning to London for the semi-final and final, have travelled 4,714km.
These heavyweights of international football will now lock horns for one final time at Wembley on Sunday to lift the ultimate prize. This is England’s first major final in an international tournament since 1966. The 55-year wait will mean nothing to the English fans if they see the Three Lions win on Sunday.