Format in twelve countries or tight pattern?
With public or behind closed doors?
100 days before the kickoff of Euro football, on June 11, uncertainty hangs around the prestigious competition, already postponed by a year.
For UEFA, the Covid-19 has shaken up preparations for the first pan-European tournament organized from Dublin to Baku via Copenhagen, Bilbao and Saint Petersburg, before the semi-finals and final scheduled in London.
"The format was already announced complex, it becomes almost untenable with the pandemic", summarizes with AFP Loïc Ravenel, scientific collaborator at the CIES Football Observatory in Neuchâtel.
»READ ALSO - Euro 2021: replace Deschamps and make your list of 23 Blues
Antoine Griezmann in the final of Euro 2016 against Portugal
Decided in March 2020, the postponement of the tournament to summer 2021 gave hope for a health improvement in the meantime: optimism was still in order last fall, with the general resumption of competitions and the arrival of vaccines.
But since January, the multiplication of Covid-19 variants has cast doubt on the evolution of the pandemic and travel restrictions are once again disrupting sports calendars.
Officially, according to UEFA, no reason to panic: the body maintains its initial plans and has only postponed, from March to early April, the time to define "city by city" its health protocol.
"READ ALSO - Vaccine, Benzema controversy, culture of winning ... The confidences of Didier Deschamps
All in London?
The fallback solution that grows thicker
In addition to the "bubbles" for teams and the media, now essential, four scenarios are considered: "100% spectators in the stadium, 50 to 100%, 20 to 30% or behind closed doors".
Except that UEFA does not control health developments or the policies of the twelve host countries, which can at any time prohibit entry into their territory or impose quarantine measures incompatible with the smooth running of the Euro.
The Bavarian leader Markus Söder, whose regional capital Munich is to host the competition, also called on January 20 to "wait and see" how the tournament could take place.
"I personally believe that the starting version, with competition spread across Europe, is unlikely to see the light of day given the travel restrictions", predicted mid-January Dominique Blanc, who chairs the Swiss Football Federation.
»READ ALSO - Israel offers UEFA to host Euro 2020 and European matches
For him, "the first variant would be to play the Euro in a single country, in Russia or in Germany for example", or even to "fall back on a single large city with enough stadiums to accommodate the six groups", such as London .
The London hypothesis resurfaced last week, via a Sunday Times article denied by the British government, even as the United Kingdom is the European country most bereaved by the pandemic.
Adding to the confusion, Budapest and Bucharest arose in recourse by hosting delocalized matches of the Champions League, while Israel offered in mid-February to the European body to host “certain meetings of the Euro”.
Confused supporters
"It is an opportunity for some countries to boast about their health management, but not a real fallback", relativizes Loïc Ravenel, for whom UEFA is trying a "bet" by playing the clock.
“Logistically, a regrouping in one place seems inevitable, but it would pose legal and economic difficulties.
So UEFA takes the risk of maintaining its project until the end, ”explains the researcher.
Public health specialist Daniel Koch, former “Mr.
Covid ”of Switzerland, now the health adviser of the Euro, assures AFP that the pan-European format is also“ a chance ”:“ If we can no longer do anything in a country, there are still eleven others in which the preparations are already underway ”.
"READ ALSO - UEFA reaffirms its" commitment "to organize the Euro in the 12 cities and on the dates planned
But in this context, a "number" of supporters who had "not missed a competition for 20 years" have already canceled their tickets, explains Ronan Evain, general manager of the Football Supporters Europe (FSE) network.
"It is conceivable that some countries will not allow non-resident ticket holders to enter, or that the latter will be authorized via a corridor: special flight, transport by bus from the airport to the stadium, etc.", he explains to AFP.
"But these are not necessarily attractive things for everyone", not to mention more drastic measures: "If we have to be in Hungary on Wednesday and in England on Sunday, it will be impossible to inflict both quarantines" .
Read also
Vaccine, Benzema controversy, culture of winning… The confidences of Didier Deschamps
