Some more background on the broader situation in Hungary:
“You’re obviously busy with weightier issues,” writes Peter Van, naively, “but let me just tell you how very excited I am about tonight’s Scotland-Croatia. I hope the Scots win, but I especially enjoy the situation – both teams absolutely must win within 90 minutes, no playing for a draw, no hanging on for penalties.
It’s a guarantee for a lively match. Only it probably won’t be. My prediction for how it will go:
- 0’ to -20’’: Scotland dominates with dazzling football, create loads of chances, can’t score
- 21’: Croatia scores from a dead ball situation.
- 22’ to 98’: Scotland dominates with dazzling football, create loads of chances, can’t score
Yes, I am predicting eight added minutes. No, Scotland probably won’t score anyway.”
If Scotland play with the intensity and intelligence they showed at Wembley, they can win, against a Croatia side that have looked stuck in second gear so far, but the goalscoring thing’s a worry.
Looking ahead again to tonight, this is the first meeting between England and the Czech Republic at a tournament finals since the break-up of Czechoslovakia (there was the deeply forgettable goalless draw with Slovakia at this stage of Euro 2016 of course), which stirs memories of the 1982 World Cup in Spain, when England beat Czechoslovakia in their second of three wins in the group stage, before running out of steam and inspiration in the next phase:
Hey Uefa, with friends like these …
Simon Evans (@sgevans)
Hungary Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto: "Thank God that in the circles of European football leadership common sense still prevails and they did not play along with the political provocation. UEFA made the right decision..."
June 22, 2021
Reuters is reporting that the EU’s leading health lawmaker wants the final to be switched from London due to the UK’s rise in Covid cases:
“The final of the Euro 2020 football tournament should not be played in London due to safety concerns over the faster spread of the coronavirus in Britain, the European Union’s top lawmaker on health issues said on Tuesday.
On Monday, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi called for the match to be moved from England due to rising Covid-19 cases there, but European soccer’s governing body Uefa said it had no plans to replace Wembley as the host stadium for the semi-finals and final.
However, the pressure on UEFA is continuing. “Our health is priority. The spread of the Delta variant makes it impossible for 40,000 spectators to view the final match in London’s stadium,” Peter Liese said in a statement on Tuesday.”
Looking ahead to tomorrow, France v Portugal leaps out as the most intriguing, particularly after both suffered varying levels of mishap in their second matches. Andy Hunter in Budapest writes on the pressure facing the holders’ coach, Fernando Santos, after that defeat by Germany:
A colleague writes …
John Brewin (@JohnBrewin_)
Hungary and Orban being the fall-back option for the final has nothing to do with this. https://t.co/B5faPZ9M94
June 22, 2021
Musical interlude: here’s Germany going a bit David Brent: ‘Go and get the guitar …’
Jenni Wu (@callmeuschi)
Yes, times are tough, but here is the Deutsche Nationalmannschaft playing 4 Non Blondes „What‘s up“ pic.twitter.com/XtOLcvcf2L
June 21, 2021
Also on the subject of Hungary, there’s been much chatter about the large crowds allowed in Budapest while most other venues are around a quarter full. This from AP offers some interesting background, about Hungary’s Covid immunity cards, and how the success of the country’s vaccination programme is undercut by fears about how the cards might be used by an authoritarian government:
Tens of thousands of soccer fans packed the Puskas Arena in Budapest last week to attend Euro 2020 matches. It was the first full-house international soccer event in Europe in more than a year — made possible largely by Hungary’s adoption of government-issued immunity cards.
The only one of the tournament’s 10 host countries to allow full crowds in stadiums, Hungary has conducted one of Europe’s most successful COVID-19 vaccination drives. The immunity cards attest that their bearers have received at least one vaccine dose or recovered from COVID-19, and allow them access to sports events as well as to services and venues such as hotels, spas, concerts, theaters and indoor restaurant dining.
Yet while the cards have allowed many to regain many aspects of pre-pandemic life, others worry that their use could impact fundamental rights. “There was a lot of anxiety in society on potential discrimination,” said David Vig, director of rights group Amnesty International Hungary. “(The government) said, There will be a distinction between people: Those who have the vaccination card, and those who do not.’”
Hungary’s procurement of vaccines from Russia and China, as well as through the European Union, quickly gave it the second highest vaccination rate in the 27-member bloc after Malta. More than 66% of adults have received at least one dose of a vaccine, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.
But in recent weeks, as most of those willing to be vaccinated have already got a jab, the pace of vaccination has slowed dramatically. Government figures show that some 2 million people still do not have an immunity card, which restricts them from many opportunities available to cardholders.
These continued restrictions for the unvaccinated underlie the government’s strategy of providing incentives for inoculation, Vig said. “The vaccination card and the strategy behind it was good from the government’s perspective. That is, it kind of pushed people towards vaccination,” he said.
But in a statement in April, the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union argued that the cards discriminate against those who “due to their state of health, cannot be vaccinated temporarily or permanently,” such as women in certain stages of pregnancy, or those with chronic conditions that make vaccination inadvisable.
Those people, and others who could not complete the mandatory online vaccine registration for lack of internet access, face discrimination, the group argued.
While more than 60,000 fans were permitted into the Puskas Arena last week for Euro 2020 matches, Hungary’s government has continued to limit other public events such as protests for those without immunity cards, citing pandemic concerns.
Some comment from below the line, from randomandy947, about that Uefa rainbow lights ban:
Sigh. Say it again people, being gay is not political. Existing as a gay person is not political. Acknowledging that gay people exist and deserve equal treatment is not a political act any more than doing the same for a straight person is. It a moral issue not a political one. If one thinks it is a political issue then maybe it is because they lack morals.
Alas we live in an age when things get deemed ‘political’ as and when it suits, with no consistency at all. (FWIW, I’d argue that all sport is inherently political, in that like all areas of popular culture it’s a reflection of the societies that produce it, and that that’s part of what makes it interesting, but your broader point is correct. It’s a pretty squalid decision from Uefa)
Meanwhile, an update from Ethics Copa América, in Brazil, where Argentina have reached the knockout stages after squeezing past Paraguay.
And Jonathan Liew has dedicated his Big Paper column to the ongoing glory of late-period Lionel Messi, who’s been in fine form in the tournament.
And talking of Wales, here’s our man in Rome – the lucky bleeder – on Danny Ward, who’s been one of the best goalkeepers on view in these Euros but can’t get a game with his club. Contains some remarkable stats about just how little domestic gametime a lot of the Wales squad got last season:
“I’d like to start a discussion,” chirps Duncan Watanabe. “Having watched Wales play with enthusiasm, read about Ramsey hiring his own physio specifically for the Euros and listened to tales of enthusiastic, supportive and uncritical Welsh followers, I have developed a theory that playing for Wales must be so much more enjoyable than playing for England. I have a suspicion that the Welsh players feel loved and that these positive vibes create highly motivated players willing to give that little bit extra. Could Wales go further than England again and who would you rather play for?”
As someone eligible for both, what I’d do is string both countries along with a stream of teasing agent-briefings over a period of months before tossing a coin. A more obvious answer is that Wales haven’t got a backstory of being crushed by the burden of expectation, but I think their fan culture - boisterous but friendly, not too entitled or taking it that seriously - helps. That said, this England team, for all its endlessly picked-over faults, is more grounded and balanced than many of its predecessors. And I suspect may go further than Wales this time – momentum is with Denmark and that’s going to be a hell of a tricky tie.
The planned ‘rainbow illumination’ of Munich’s stadium tomorrow, in response to homophobic legislation in Hungary, has been deemed too political by European football’s impeccably neutral overlords. This from PA Media:
Uefa has declined a request to illuminate the Euro 2020 stadium in Munich in rainbow colours for the Germany v Hungary match because it believes the gesture has a political context.
European football’s governing body said it received the request from the mayor of the German city, Dieter Reiter, on Monday.
Uefa said that the mayor’s reason for the request was a response to legislation passed in Hungary banning gay people from appearing in school educational materials or programmes for under-18s.
On that basis, Uefa said it could not grant the request and proposed alternative dates for the stadium to be lit up in rainbow colours.
“Racism, homophobia, sexism, and all forms of discrimination are a stain on our societies - and represent one of the biggest problems faced by the game today,” a statement from Uefa read.
“Discriminatory behaviour has marred both matches themselves and, outside the stadiums, the online discourse around the sport we love.
“However Uefa, through its statutes, is a politically and religiously neutral organisation. Given the political context of this specific request – a message aiming at a decision taken by the Hungarian national parliament – Uefa must decline this request.”
And so to tonight’s proceedings, which have been heavily overshadowed by Billy Gilmour’s positive Covid test, the knock-on effects for Ben Chilwell and Mason Mount (and others), and how it might impact the rest of the group. We can only hope there are no further positive tests and that Gilmour is back up and in action when possible. Ewan Murray discusses Scotland’s prospects against Croatia here, and the need for a goal that their performances have needed and deserved, while David Hytner reports from the England camp, with Mount and Chilwell doubtful for the game against the Czech Republic.
As for the football, England, as in 2018, go into their final group game with qualification ensured and a debate raging about whether it’s better to finish second and avoid a perilous section of the draw. Unlike then, there’s less clamour to rotate and experiment, and much more on the need to determine, and get a tune out of, England’s best XI. Gareth Southgate says England need to excite the crowd after Friday’s boos.
And here’s Barney Ronay’s pre-match thinkpiece on England’s need to unshackle themselves in the here and now:
Morning everyone, and welcome to day 12 of Euro 2020, which brings us games of varying significance for England and Scotland. But enough of that for now; we must start by talking about last night, particularly the match in Copenhagen where Denmark, on a tide of Christian Eriksen-fuelled emotion and gleefully launched plastic pint glasses, eviscerated Russia with a thrilling attacking display to reach the knockout stages. Their second-round opponents in Amsterdam will be Wales, and in normal circumstances you’d bank on this game to produce the best atmosphere of the tournament, but restrictions on visiting fans look to have put paid to that (and sparked a clamour in certain quarters for a venue-swap with Italy v Austria at Wembley).
Denmark’s sparkling display also illustrated another notable feature of this tournament so far: that it’s being bossed by players at mid-ranking Italian clubs. Add Mikkel Damsgaard (Sampdoria) and Joakim Mæhle (Atalanta) to a best-of list that might also contain Robin Gosens (Atalanta), Domenico Berardi and Manuel Locatelli (both Sassuolo). So in summary then, stuff yer Superleague.
So there’s loads to discuss before we even get on to England and Scotland and Covid and other points of general angst. To start off your day, pour the latest Euro 2020 Daily into your ears, as Max and the pod discuss the Netherlands’ winning form, Denmark’s fairytale and more.
from Football | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3gWzjtF
via IFTTT
No Comment