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UEFA Euro 2020

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UEFA Euro 2020
UEFA Euro 2020 Logo.svg
Live It. For Real.
Tournament details
Host countries
11
Azerbaijan
Denmark
England
Germany
Hungary
Italy
Netherlands
Romania
Russia
Scotland
Spain
Dates11 June – 11 July 2021
Teams24
Venue(s)11 (in 11 host cities)
Final positions
Champions Italy (2nd title)
Runners-up England
Tournament statistics
Matches played51
Goals scored142 (2.78 per match)
Attendance1,099,278 (21,554 per match)
Top scorer(s)Portugal Cristiano Ronaldo
Czech Republic Patrik Schick
(5 goals each)
Best player(s)Italy Gianluigi Donnarumma
Best young playerSpain Pedri
2016
2024

The 2020 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2020 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2020) or simply Euro 2020, was the 16th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA).[1] To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the European Championship competition, UEFA president Michel Platini declared that the tournament would be hosted in several nations as a "romantic" one-off event, with 11 cities in 11 UEFA countries each providing venues for the tournament.[2] Defending champions Portugal, who won UEFA Euro 2016 in France, were eliminated in the round of 16 by Belgium.[3] Italy won their second European Championship title by beating England on penalties in the final following a 1–1 draw after extra time.[4] The win came exactly on the 39th anniversary of Italy's 1982 FIFA World Cup Final win over West Germany.[5]

The tournament was originally intended to be played between 12 June and 12 July 2020.[6] However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe during that year, the tournament was postponed to June and July 2021, while retaining the name UEFA Euro 2020 and host venues. Alongside special rules regarding COVID-19, UEFA also allowed two extra substitutions[7] and implemented video assistant referee (VAR) for the first time.[8]

Initially, there were 13 venues chosen for the tournament but two were later dropped. Brussels was dropped in December 2017 after the city's Eurostadium was abandoned,[9] while Dublin was dropped in April 2021 because there was no guarantee that spectators could attend. Spain originally intended to use Bilbao as a host venue but later changed it to Seville to allow for spectators at matches.[10] UEFA chose Stadio Olimpico in Rome to host the opening match between Italy and Turkey, while Wembley Stadium in London was selected as a semi-final and final venue for the second time,[11] following the 1996 tournament at the original stadium of the same name.

The tournament was well received by fans and commentators, with the most goals per game in a European Championship since the introduction of the group stage, and only two goalless games. The refereeing style was also praised, with a conservative use of VAR and quick decisions made on the pitch.

Discover more about UEFA Euro 2020 related topics

Association football

Association football

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel a ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is to score more goals than the opposite team by moving the ball beyond the goal line into a rectangular-framed goal defended by the opposing side. Traditionally, the game has been played over two 45-minute halves, for a total match time of 90 minutes. With an estimated 250 million players active in over 200 countries and territories, it is considered the world's most popular sport.

Michel Platini

Michel Platini

Michel François Platini is a French football administrator and former player and manager. Regarded as one of the greatest footballers of all time, Platini won the Ballon d'Or three times in a row, in 1983, 1984 and 1985, and came seventh in the FIFA Player of the Century vote. In recognition of his achievements, he was named a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur in 1985 and became an Officier in 1998. As the president of UEFA in 2015 he was banned from involvement in football under FIFA's organisation, over ethics violations. The ban will last until 2023.

Portugal national football team

Portugal national football team

The Portugal national football team has represented Portugal in international men's football competition since 1921. The national team is controlled by the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF), the governing body for football in Portugal. Portugal's home matches are played at various stadiums throughout Portugal, and its primary training ground and technical headquarters, Cidade do Futebol, is located in Oeiras. The head coach of the team is Roberto Martínez, who replaced Fernando Santos in January 2023 following his stepping down after the 2022 World Cup, and the captain is Cristiano Ronaldo, who also holds the team records for most caps and most goals.

Belgium national football team

Belgium national football team

The Belgium national football team officially represents Belgium in men's international football since their maiden match in 1904. The squad is under the global jurisdiction of FIFA and is governed in Europe by UEFA—both of which were co-founded by the Belgian team's supervising body, the Royal Belgian Football Association. Periods of regular Belgian representation at the highest international level, from 1920 to 1938, from 1982 to 2002 and again from 2014 onwards, have alternated with mostly unsuccessful qualification rounds. Most of Belgium's home matches are played at the King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels.

Italy national football team

Italy national football team

The Italy national football team has represented Italy in international football since its first match in 1910. The national team is controlled by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), the governing body for football in Italy, which is a co-founder and member of UEFA. Italy's home matches are played at various stadiums throughout Italy, and its primary training ground and technical headquarters, Centro Tecnico Federale di Coverciano, is located in Florence. Italy are the reigning European champions, having won UEFA Euro 2020.

England national football team

England national football team

The England national football team has represented England in international football since the first international match in 1872. It is controlled by The Football Association (FA), the governing body for football in England, which is affiliated with UEFA and comes under the global jurisdiction of world football's governing body FIFA. England competes in the three major international tournament contested by European nations: the FIFA World Cup, the UEFA European Championship, and the UEFA Nations League.

COVID-19 pandemic in Europe

COVID-19 pandemic in Europe

The global COVID-19 pandemic arrived in Europe with its first confirmed case in Bordeaux, France, on 24 January 2020, and subsequently spread widely across the continent. By 17 March 2020, every country in Europe had confirmed a case, and all have reported at least one death, with the exception of Vatican City.

Brussels

Brussels

Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, is a region of Belgium comprising 19 municipalities, including the City of Brussels, which is the capital of Belgium. The Brussels-Capital Region is located in the central portion of the country and is a part of both the French Community of Belgium and the Flemish Community, but is separate from the Flemish Region and the Walloon Region.

Eurostadium

Eurostadium

Eurostadium was a proposed stadium in Grimbergen, Belgium, just north of Brussels. It would have had a capacity of 62,613. In June 2015, the building deadline was set for 2019. It would have hosted matches for UEFA Euro 2020, and would have become the home ground of the national football team of Belgium.

Dublin

Dublin

Dublin is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 census it had a population of 1,173,179, while the preliminary results of the 2022 census recorded that County Dublin as a whole had a population of 1,450,701, and that the population of the Greater Dublin Area was over 2 million, or roughly 40% of the Republic of Ireland's total population.

Bilbao

Bilbao

Bilbao is a city in northern Spain, the largest city in the province of Biscay and in the Basque Country as a whole. It is also the largest city proper in northern Spain. Bilbao is the tenth largest city in Spain, with a population of 346,843 as of 2019. The Bilbao metropolitan area has 1,037,847 inhabitants, making it the most populous metropolitan area in northern Spain; with a population of 875,552 comarca of Greater Bilbao is the fifth-largest urban area in Spain. Bilbao is also the main urban area in what is defined as the Greater Basque region.

London

London

London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a 50-mile (80 km) estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major settlement for two millennia. The City of London, its ancient core and financial centre, was founded by the Romans as Londinium and retains its medieval boundaries. The City of Westminster, to the west of the City of London, has for centuries hosted the national government and parliament. Since the 19th century, the name "London" has also referred to the metropolis around this core, historically split between the counties of Middlesex, Essex, Surrey, Kent, and Hertfordshire, which since 1965 has largely comprised Greater London, which is governed by 33 local authorities and the Greater London Authority.

Bid process

While some countries such as Belgium,[12] Bulgaria and Romania,[13] Germany,[14][15] Hungary and Romania,[16] Ireland, Scotland, and Wales,[17] the Netherlands,[18] and Turkey[19] had already expressed an interest in bidding to host the tournament, then-UEFA president Michel Platini suggested at a press conference on 30 June 2012, a day before the UEFA Euro 2012 Final, that instead of having one host country, or joint hosting by multiple countries, the tournament could be spread over "12 or 13 cities" across the continent, as was done for the UEFA European Under-17 Championship's elite round, where each of the seven groups was hosted by a different country.[20]

European format decision

On 6 December 2012, UEFA announced the tournament would be held in multiple cities across Europe to mark the 60th anniversary of the tournament.[21][22] The selection of the host cities did not guarantee an automatic qualifying berth to the national team of that country. UEFA reasoned that the pan-European staging of the tournament was the logical decision at a time of financial difficulty, such as the European debt crisis.[23][24] Reaction to UEFA's plan was mixed across Europe.[25] Critics cited the expanded format (from 31 matches featuring 16 nations to 51 featuring 24) and its associated additional costs as the decisive factor for only one nation (Turkey) having put forward a serious bid.[26]

Bidding venues

The final list of bids was published by UEFA on 26 April 2014, with a decision on the hosts being made by the UEFA Executive Committee on 19 September 2014. There were two bids for the Finals Package (of which one was successful, marked with dark green for semi-finals and final) and 19 bids for the Standard Package (of which 12 were initially successful, marked with light green for quarter-finals and group stage, and yellow for round of 16 and group stage); Brussels, marked with red, were initially selected but removed from the list of venues by UEFA on 7 December 2017.[27][11][28] Dublin, marked in red, was initially selected but removed from the list of venues by UEFA on 23 April 2021. On the same day, UEFA also announced the matches in Spain would be moved from Bilbao to Seville.[10]

  Successful bid for group stage and round of 16
  Successful bid for group stage and quarter-finals
  Successful bid for semi-finals and final. Later added: Group stage and round of 16
  Successful bid for group stage and round of 16 at first but later removed from list
  Successful bid for group stage and round of 16 but later changed to another venue in country
  Unsuccessful bid (either rejected as judged by UEFA to not fulfill the bid requirements, or eliminated by vote)
Country City Venue Capacity Package Result #
 Azerbaijan Baku Olympic Stadium 68,700 Standard Package Group stage and quarter-finals 4
 Belarus Minsk Dinamo Stadium 34,000 (to be expanded to 39,000) Standard Package Rejected 0
 Belgium Brussels Eurostadium (proposed new national stadium) 50,000 (62,613 potentially) Standard Package Group stage and round of 16
(later cancelled)
0
 Bulgaria Sofia Vasil Levski National Stadium 43,000 (to be expanded to 50,000) Standard Package Rejected 0
 Denmark Copenhagen Parken Stadium 38,065 Standard Package Group stage and round of 16 4
 England London Wembley Stadium 90,000 Finals Package
(withdrawn Standard Package)
Semi-finals and final
Group stage and two round of 16 (later added)
8
 Germany Munich Allianz Arena 70,000 Standard Package, Finals Package Group stage and quarter-finals 4
 Hungary Budapest Puskás Aréna 56,000 (proposed new 67,215 stadium) Standard Package Group stage and round of 16 4
 Israel Jerusalem Teddy Stadium 34,000 (to be expanded to 53,000) Standard Package Rejected 0
 Italy Rome Stadio Olimpico 70,634 Standard Package Opening match, group stage and quarter-finals 4
 Macedonia[a] Skopje Philip II Arena[b] 33,460 Standard Package Rejected 0
 Netherlands Amsterdam Amsterdam Arena[c] 54,990 (to be expanded to around 56,000) Standard Package Group stage and round of 16 4
 Republic of Ireland Dublin Aviva Stadium 51,700 Standard Package Group stage and round of 16
(later cancelled)
0
 Romania Bucharest Arena Națională 55,600 Standard Package Group stage and round of 16 4
 Russia Saint Petersburg Krestovsky Stadium 68,134 Standard Package Group stage (a second group later added) and quarter-finals 7
 Scotland Glasgow Hampden Park 51,866 Standard Package Group stage and round of 16 4
 Spain Bilbao San Mamés 53,289 Standard Package Group stage and round of 16
(later moved to La Cartuja in Seville)
4
 Sweden Solna, Stockholm Friends Arena 54,329 Standard Package Eliminated 0
 Wales Cardiff Millennium Stadium 74,500 Standard Package Eliminated 0
  1. ^ Now North Macedonia
  2. ^ Renamed in 2019 to Toše Proeski Arena.
  3. ^ Renamed in 2018 to Johan Cruyff Arena

Discover more about Bid process related topics

2012 UEFA European Under-17 Championship elite round

2012 UEFA European Under-17 Championship elite round

2012 UEFA European Under-17 Football Championship elite round was the second round of qualifications for the final tournament of UEFA U-17 Championship 2012. The 28 teams advancing from the qualifying round were distributed into seven groups of four teams each, with each group contesting in a round-robin format, with one of the four teams hosting all six group games. The seven group-winning teams automatically qualified for the final tournament in Slovenia.

European debt crisis

European debt crisis

The European debt crisis, often also referred to as the eurozone crisis or the European sovereign debt crisis, is a multi-year debt crisis that took place in the European Union (EU) from 2009 until the mid to late 2010s. Several eurozone member states were unable to repay or refinance their government debt or to bail out over-indebted banks under their national supervision without the assistance of third parties like other eurozone countries, the European Central Bank (ECB), or the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Bilbao

Bilbao

Bilbao is a city in northern Spain, the largest city in the province of Biscay and in the Basque Country as a whole. It is also the largest city proper in northern Spain. Bilbao is the tenth largest city in Spain, with a population of 346,843 as of 2019. The Bilbao metropolitan area has 1,037,847 inhabitants, making it the most populous metropolitan area in northern Spain; with a population of 875,552 comarca of Greater Bilbao is the fifth-largest urban area in Spain. Bilbao is also the main urban area in what is defined as the Greater Basque region.

Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia and Turkey to the west, and Iran to the south. Baku is the capital and largest city.

Baku

Baku

Baku is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is 28 metres (92 ft) below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world and also the largest city in the world below sea level. Baku lies on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, on the Bay of Baku. Baku's urban population was estimated at two million people as of 2009. Baku is the primate city of Azerbaijan—it is the sole metropolis in the country, and about 25% of all inhabitants of the country live in Baku's metropolitan area.

Baku Olympic Stadium

Baku Olympic Stadium

Baku Olympic Stadium, is a stadium, designed and constructed to meet the international standards for stadiums set by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) and the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). It is the largest stadium in Azerbaijan.

Belarus

Belarus

Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Covering an area of 207,600 square kilometres (80,200 sq mi) and with a population of 9.2 million, Belarus is the 13th-largest and the 20th-most populous country in Europe. The country has a hemiboreal climate and is administratively divided into seven regions. Minsk is the capital and largest city.

Dinamo Stadium (Minsk)

Dinamo Stadium (Minsk)

Dinamo National Olympic Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Minsk, Belarus. It was reopened after a renovation project. Earlier it was used mostly for football matches and was the home ground of Dinamo Minsk, FC Minsk and the Belarus national football team. Previously the stadium officially held 40,000, but because part of the upper stand had been abandoned in the mid-1990s for safety reasons, the actual capacity before renovations was 34,000. After renovation the capacity is only 22,246.

Belgium

Belgium

Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to the southwest, and the North Sea to the northwest. It covers an area of 30,528 km2 (11,787 sq mi) and has a population of more than 11.5 million, making it the 22nd most densely populated country in the world and the 6th most densely populated country in Europe, with a density of 376/km2 (970/sq mi). Belgium is part of an area known as the Low Countries, historically a somewhat larger region than the Benelux group of states, as it also included parts of northern France. The capital and largest city is Brussels; other major cities are Antwerp, Ghent, Charleroi, Liège, Bruges, Namur, and Leuven.

Brussels

Brussels

Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, is a region of Belgium comprising 19 municipalities, including the City of Brussels, which is the capital of Belgium. The Brussels-Capital Region is located in the central portion of the country and is a part of both the French Community of Belgium and the Flemish Community, but is separate from the Flemish Region and the Walloon Region.

Eurostadium

Eurostadium

Eurostadium was a proposed stadium in Grimbergen, Belgium, just north of Brussels. It would have had a capacity of 62,613. In June 2015, the building deadline was set for 2019. It would have hosted matches for UEFA Euro 2020, and would have become the home ground of the national football team of Belgium.

Bulgaria

Bulgaria

Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, and the Black Sea to the east. Bulgaria covers a territory of 110,994 square kilometres (42,855 sq mi), and is the sixteenth-largest country in Europe. Sofia is the nation's capital and largest city; other major cities are Plovdiv, Varna and Burgas.

Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic

Start of the pandemic and postponement

In early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe triggered concerns regarding its potential impact on players, staff and visitors to the twelve host cities of the tournament.[29] At the UEFA Congress in early March, UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin said the organisation was confident that the situation could be dealt with, while general secretary Theodore Theodoridis stated that UEFA was maintaining contact with the World Health Organization and national governments regarding the coronavirus.[30] The impact on football grew later that month, as numerous domestic and UEFA competition matches began taking place behind closed doors. By 13 March 2020, upcoming UEFA competition fixtures were postponed, while major European leagues were suspended, including the Bundesliga, La Liga, Ligue 1, Premier League, and Serie A.[31]

UEFA held a videoconference on 17 March 2020 with representatives of its 55 member associations, along with a FIFPro representative and the boards of the European Club Association and European Leagues, to discuss the response to the outbreak for domestic and European competitions, including Euro 2020.[32] At the meeting, UEFA announced that the tournament would be postponed to the following year, proposing that it take place from 11 June to 11 July 2021.[33] The postponement allowed for pressure to be reduced on the public services in affected countries, while also providing space in the calendar for domestic European leagues that had been suspended to complete their seasons.[34] On the following day, the Bureau of the FIFA Council approved the date change in the FIFA International Match Calendar. As a result, the expanded FIFA Club World Cup, due to take place in June and July 2021, was postponed.[35] On 23 April 2020, UEFA confirmed that the tournament would still be known as UEFA Euro 2020.[36][37]

Spectator plans and venue changes

In May 2020, Čeferin stated that in principle the tournament would take place in the twelve selected host cities. However, he did not rule out the possibility of reducing the number of cities, as three hosts were unsure if matches could be held under the new schedule.[38] The tournament venues and match schedule was reviewed by the UEFA Executive Committee during their meeting on 17 June 2020.[39] At the meeting, UEFA confirmed that all twelve original host venues would remain as hosts for the tournament in 2021, and approved the revised match schedule.[40][41] However, Čeferin stated in October 2020 that it was still possible that the tournament could be played in fewer than the planned twelve host countries.[42] The following month, UEFA stated that it "intends to hold Euro 2020 in the format and the venues confirmed earlier this year and we are working closely with all host cities on preparations".[43] It was also announced that each host was discussing with UEFA and local health authorities on whether the venue could host matches at full capacity, between 100% and 50% capacity, at 33% capacity or behind closed doors. Each host city was asked to draw up two or three plans from the four options. The restrictions could also involve only local spectators to be permitted at matches. A final decision on which scenario would be applied individually at each venue was originally to be made on 5 March 2021.[44][45] In October 2020, it was announced that UEFA matches would be suspended from taking place in Armenia and Azerbaijan until further notice due to the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war.[46] However, this did not affect the planning of Euro 2020 matches to be held in Baku.[47] This restriction was lifted in December 2020 following a ceasefire agreement between the countries.[48]

In a New Year's interview, Čeferin said, "Vaccination has started and I think we will be able to have full stands in the summer. For now, the plan is to play in all twelve countries. Of course, there are backup options in case a country has a problem. We are ready to organise competitions in eleven, ten or nine cities... and even only in one country, if necessary. However, I am 99.9 percent sure that we will have the European Championship in all twelve cities, as planned."[49][50] On 27 January 2021, UEFA met with the host associations to discuss operational matters, and reaffirmed the tournament would be held across twelve cities.[51] The deadline for hosts to submit their venue capacity plans was moved to 7 April 2021,[52] with a final decision on host cities and spectators to originally be made by the UEFA Executive Committee on 19 April 2021.[53] UEFA announced on the following day that Daniel Koch, the former head of communicable diseases at Switzerland's Federal Office of Public Health, would serve as the tournament's medical advisor on matters related to the COVID-19 pandemic.[54] In February 2021, the Israel Football Association offered to stage some tournament matches in the country, which had a high rate of vaccination. However, this was turned down by UEFA, who reiterated their commitment to the twelve host cities.[55] In a March 2021 interview, Čeferin said, "We have several scenarios, but the one guarantee we can make is that the option of playing any Euro 2020 match in an empty stadium is off the table. Every host must guarantee there will be fans at their games." UEFA subsequently stated that no host city would be automatically dropped should they decide to play matches behind closed doors. However, UEFA would need to consider whether it would make sense to play matches without spectators, or if these matches should be reallocated to other venues.[56] That same month, British prime minister Boris Johnson offered UEFA to host additional tournament matches in England should any venues need to be reassigned.[57]

On 9 April 2021, UEFA announced that eight of the original twelve tournament hosts confirmed their spectator plans, with stadium capacities ranging from 25% to 100%. Only Bilbao, Dublin, Munich and Rome had yet to submit their plans, with each host originally given an extension until 19 April 2021 to submit their venue capacities.[58] On 14 April, UEFA announced that Rome had guaranteed spectators for the tournament, and was therefore confirmed as a venue.[59] On 19 April, it was announced that another extension was given to the three remaining hosts until 23 April, when UEFA would make its final decision.[60] Due to the need to finalise ticketing details, host cities would have until 28 April to decide on whether to leave their spectator limits unchanged, or to upscale their allowed capacities.[61]

On 23 April, UEFA announced that Seville would replace Bilbao as tournament host, while the matches of Dublin would be reallocated to Saint Petersburg for the group stage and London for the round of 16.[10] Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Republic of Ireland, the Football Association of Ireland was unable to receive assurances from the Government of Ireland and the Dublin City Council to allow spectators into the stadium.[62][63][64] Meanwhile, the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) said the sanitary conditions imposed by the Basque Government to host matches in Bilbao were "impossible to comply with", and thus would not allow for spectators to be present.[65] After being removed as hosts, the Bilbao City Council stated they held UEFA and RFEF "directly responsible for us not staging this sporting event and the unilateral cancellation of our contractual relationships", and threatened legal action for financial compensation.[66]

Also on 23 April, UEFA announced that local authorities had guaranteed "a minimum of 14,500 spectators" for the matches scheduled in Munich, which was therefore confirmed as host of four games.[10] However, both the regional government of Bavaria and the German interior ministry subsequently reiterated their position that there was no such guarantee, and admittance of spectators would depend on the actual pandemic situation at the time of the tournament.[67] A few days later, UEFA president Čeferin backtracked in an interview with a German newspaper, denying that UEFA had demanded guarantees for games with spectators, and conceding that "the local authorities will decide before the games whether spectators will be admitted or not."[68][69]

Semi-final and final venue

Italian President Sergio Mattarella speaks with the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson before the final
Italian President Sergio Mattarella speaks with the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson before the final

Wembley Stadium's hosting of both the semi-finals and the final was threatened over quarantine restrictions in the United Kingdom that fans and 2,500 VIPs would be subject to. The Puskás Aréna in Budapest was considered as an alternative venue, as Hungary would have no entry restrictions for travel within the Schengen Area and could host the matches at full capacity.[70] A spokesman for the Hungarian Football Federation said the organisation was "ready to host any high-level football event".[71] However, UEFA remained confident that Wembley could host the final, as the organisation and the UK government discussed quarantine exemptions,[72] but did not rule out a change in venue.[73] Minister Kit Malthouse said the government was doing "as much as we possibly can" to host the final,[74] while prime minister Boris Johnson stated they would try to make "sensible accommodations" for UEFA while still prioritising public health.[75] Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said the final should be held in Rome due to rising COVID-19 cases in the United Kingdom.[76] The following week, it was reported that officials and executives travelling for the matches would not need to self-isolate, though they would be subject to restrictions and required to remain in "football bubbles".[77][78]

Rule changes

On 31 March 2021, the UEFA Executive Committee approved the use of a maximum of five substitutions in matches at the tournament (with a sixth allowed in extra time).[7] However, each team are only given three opportunities to make substitutions, with a fourth opportunity allowed in extra time, excluding substitutions made at half-time, before the start of extra time and at half-time in extra time.[79] The use of five substitutes has been permitted by IFAB during the COVID-19 pandemic due to the resulting fixture congestion, which has created a greater burden on players.[80]

At the start of April 2021, UEFA also said they were considering allowing tournament squads to be expanded from the usual 23 players, following calls from national team managers in case of a possible COVID outbreak in a team, as well as to reduce player fatigue caused by the fixture congestion of the prior season.[81] On 27 April, it was reported that the UEFA National Team Competitions Committee had approved the expansion of squads to 26 players, subject to confirmation by the UEFA Executive Committee.[82] On 4 May 2021, the executive committee confirmed the use of 26-player squads. However, teams still may only name a maximum of 23 players on the match sheet for each tournament fixture (of which 12 are substitutes), in line with the Laws of the Game. These 23 must include three goalkeepers. It was also announced that after each team's first match, goalkeepers may still be replaced due to physical incapacity, even if the other goalkeepers from the squad are still available.[83]

Water breaks were permitted so that players could drink from their own personal bottles.[84] Cooling breaks, first seen at the 2014 FIFA World Cup were also permitted for games played in higher temperatures.[85]

Special rules due to COVID-19

On 4 May 2021, the UEFA Executive Committee approved special rules for the final tournament due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe:[83][86]

  • If a group of players of a team were placed into mandatory quarantine or self-isolation following a decision from national or local health officials due to positive SARS-CoV-2 tests, the match will go ahead as scheduled as long as the team had at least 13 players available (including at least one goalkeeper). If fewer than 13 players were available (including at least one goalkeeper), additional players could have been called up to meet the minimum of 13 players required. In such a case, an equivalent number of quarantined players must have been definitively withdrawn from the 26-player list.
  • If a team cannot field the minimum required number of players due to positive SARS-CoV-2 tests, the match may be rescheduled within the next 48 hours of the original date of the match by the UEFA administration, subject to viable rescheduling options being available. Additionally, UEFA may reassign the rescheduled match to an alternative venue if deemed appropriate.
  • If the match cannot be rescheduled, the UEFA Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body will decide on the matter. The team responsible for the match not taking place are considered to have forfeited the match and lost 3–0.
  • If any member of the appointed referee team has to be replaced due to positive SARS-CoV-2 test, UEFA can exceptionally appoint a match official of the same nationality as one of the teams or not on the FIFA list.

Discover more about Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic related topics

COVID-19 pandemic in Europe

COVID-19 pandemic in Europe

The global COVID-19 pandemic arrived in Europe with its first confirmed case in Bordeaux, France, on 24 January 2020, and subsequently spread widely across the continent. By 17 March 2020, every country in Europe had confirmed a case, and all have reported at least one death, with the exception of Vatican City.

Aleksander Čeferin

Aleksander Čeferin

Aleksander Čeferin is a Slovenian lawyer and football administrator. Between 2011 and 2016, he was president of the Football Association of Slovenia. Since September 2016, he has been the president of UEFA.

Behind closed doors (sport)

Behind closed doors (sport)

The term "behind closed doors" is used in several sports, to describe matches played where spectators are not allowed in the stadium to watch. The reasons for this may include punishment for a team found guilty of a certain act in the past, stadium safety problems, public health concerns, or to prevent potentially dangerous clashes between rival supporters. In football, it is predicated by articles 7, 12 and 24 of FIFA's disciplinary code.

2019–20 Bundesliga

2019–20 Bundesliga

The 2019–20 Bundesliga was the 57th season of the Bundesliga, Germany's premier football competition. It began on 16 August 2019 and concluded on 27 June 2020. Bayern Munich were the defending champions, and won their record-extending 8th consecutive title and 30th title overall on 16 June with two games to spare. With 100 goals scored in 34 matches, Bayern became the second side to reach this milestone in a Bundesliga season, after the record 101 goals the club previously managed to score in 1971–72.

2019–20 La Liga

2019–20 La Liga

The 2019–20 La Liga season, also known as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, was the 89th since its establishment. The season began on 16 August 2019 and was originally scheduled to conclude on 24 May 2020.

2019–20 Ligue 1

2019–20 Ligue 1

The 2019–20 Ligue 1 season, also known as Ligue 1 Conforama for sponsorship reasons, was a French association football tournament within Ligue 1. It was the 82nd season since its establishment. The season began on 9 August 2019 and ended abruptly on 28 April 2020.

2019–20 Premier League

2019–20 Premier League

The 2019–20 Premier League was the 28th season of the Premier League, the top English professional football league, since its establishment in 1992, and the 121st season of top-flight English football overall. The season started on 9 August 2019 and concluded on 26 July 2020. Manchester City were the defending champions for the second successive year, after picking up the domestic treble the previous season. Liverpool won their first league title since 1990, the club's first of the Premier League era and nineteenth overall.

2019–20 Serie A

2019–20 Serie A

The 2019–20 Serie A was the 118th season of top-tier Italian football, the 88th in a round-robin tournament, and the 10th since its organization under an own league committee, the Lega Serie A. Juventus were the eight-time defending champions and they successfully defended their title following a 2–0 win against Sampdoria on 26 July 2020.

European Club Association

European Club Association

The European Club Association (ECA) is a body representing the interests of professional association football clubs in UEFA. It is the sole such body recognised by the confederation, and has member clubs in each UEFA member association. It was formed in 2008 after the merge between the G-14 and the European Club Forum, which comprised a small number of elite clubs and was unrecognised by UEFA. The ECA's mission statement is "to create a new, more democratic governance model that truly reflects the key role of the clubs". After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the ECA suspended its seven Russian members - Zenit St Petersburg, FC Spartak Moscow, Lokomotiv Moscow, CSKA Moscow, FC Krasnodar, Rubin Kazan, and FC Rostov.

European Leagues

European Leagues

European Leagues (EL) is a sports organisation within association football created for growth of professional football in Europe.

FIFA Council

FIFA Council

The FIFA Council is an institution of FIFA. It is the main decision-making body of the organization in the intervals of FIFA Congress. Its members are elected by the FIFA Congress. The council is a non-executive, supervisory and strategic body that sets the vision for FIFA and global football.

FIFA International Match Calendar

FIFA International Match Calendar

The FIFA International Match Calendar is an outline agreement between FIFA, the six continental football confederations, the European Club Association, and FIFPro, which sets out which dates can be used for "official" and "friendly" men's international matches.

Qualification

  Team qualified for UEFA Euro 2020   Team failed to qualify
  Team qualified for UEFA Euro 2020
  Team failed to qualify

There was no automatic qualifying berth, and all 55 UEFA national teams, including the twelve national teams whose countries were selected to stage matches, had to compete in the qualifiers for the 24 places at the finals tournament.[87][88] As the host cities were appointed by UEFA in September 2014, before the qualifiers, it was possible for the national teams from the host cities to fail to qualify for the finals tournament. The qualifying draw was held on 2 December 2018 at the Convention Centre Dublin in Dublin, Ireland.[89]

The main qualifying process started in March 2019, instead of immediately in September 2018 following the 2018 FIFA World Cup, and ended in November 2019. The format remained largely the same, although only 20 of the 24 spots for the finals tournament were decided from the main qualifying process, leaving four spots still to be decided. Following the admission of Kosovo to UEFA in May 2016, it was announced that the 55 members at the time would be drawn into ten groups after the completion of the UEFA Nations League (five groups of five teams and five groups of six teams, with the four participants of the UEFA Nations League Finals guaranteed to be drawn into groups of five teams), with the top two teams in each group qualifying. The qualifiers were played on double matchdays in March, June, September, October and November 2019.[90]

With the creation of the UEFA Nations League starting in 2018,[91][90][92][93] the 2018–19 UEFA Nations League was linked with Euro qualifying, providing teams another chance to qualify for the tournament. Four teams from each division that had not already qualified for the European Championship competed in the play-offs for each division. The winners of the play-offs for each division, which were decided by two one-off semi-finals (the best-ranked team vs. the lowest-ranked team, and the second-best-ranked team vs. the third-best-ranked team, played at home of higher-ranked teams) and a one-off final (with the venue drawn in advance between the two semi-finals winners), joined the 20 teams that had already qualified for the tournament.[93]

Qualified teams

Of the 24 teams that qualified for the tournament, 19 were returning from the 2016 edition. Among them were Belgium and Italy, who both had recorded flawless qualifying campaigns (ten wins in ten matches),[94][95] defending European champions Portugal and world champions France, with Germany also qualifying for a record 13th straight European Championship.[96] Finland and North Macedonia made their European Championship debuts, having never previously qualified for a major tournament.[97][98] Scotland, a co-host of the tournament, qualified for their first major international tournament since the 1998 FIFA World Cup, and their first European Championship since 1996.[99] The Netherlands and Denmark returned after missing out in 2016, with the Dutch featuring in a major tournament for the first time since the 2014 FIFA World Cup.[100][101] For the first time, Austria, Hungary, Slovakia and Wales reached successive European Championship tournaments.[102][103] Greece, winners in 2004, were the only former champions that failed to qualify, missing their second straight European Championship and third consecutive major tournament.[104] Albania, Iceland, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and Romania failed to qualify after appearing in the 2016 finals.[105]

Nine out of eleven host countries managed to qualify for the final tournament. Denmark, England, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia and Spain all qualified directly, while Hungary and Scotland qualified only after winning their respective play-off path. Azerbaijan and Romania failed to qualify, with Azerbaijan failing to qualify from the group stage[106] and Romania losing in the play-off.[107]

Team[A] Qualified as Qualified on Previous appearances in tournament[B]
 Belgium Group I winner 10 October 2019 5 (1972, 1980, 1984, 2000, 2016)
 Italy Group J winner 12 October 2019 9 (1968, 1980, 1988, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016)
 Russia[C] Group I runner-up 13 October 2019 11 (1960, 1964, 1968, 1972, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016)
 Poland Group G winner 13 October 2019 3 (2008, 2012, 2016)
 Ukraine Group B winner 14 October 2019 2 (2012, 2016)
 Spain Group F winner 15 October 2019 10 (1964, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016)
 France Group H winner 14 November 2019 9 (1960, 1984, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016)
 Turkey Group H runner-up 14 November 2019 4 (1996, 2000, 2008, 2016)
 England Group A winner 14 November 2019 9 (1968, 1980, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2012, 2016)
 Czech Republic[D] Group A runner-up 14 November 2019 9 (1960, 1976, 1980, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016)
 Finland Group J runner-up 15 November 2019 0 (debut)
 Sweden Group F runner-up 15 November 2019 6 (1992, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016)
 Croatia Group E winner 16 November 2019 5 (1996, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016)
 Austria Group G runner-up 16 November 2019 2 (2008, 2016)
 Netherlands Group C runner-up 16 November 2019 9 (1976, 1980, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012)
 Germany[E] Group C winner 16 November 2019 12 (1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016)
 Portugal Group B runner-up 17 November 2019 7 (1984, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016)
 Switzerland Group D winner 18 November 2019 4 (1996, 2004, 2008, 2016)
 Denmark Group D runner-up 18 November 2019 8 (1964, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2012)
 Wales Group E runner-up 19 November 2019 1 (2016)
 North Macedonia Play-off Path D winner 12 November 2020 0 (debut)
 Hungary Play-off Path A winner 12 November 2020 3 (1964, 1972, 2016)
 Slovakia[F] Play-off Path B winner 12 November 2020 4 (1960, 1976, 1980, 2016)
 Scotland Play-off Path C winner 12 November 2020 2 (1992, 1996)
  1. ^ Italic indicates team from one of the eleven host associations.
  2. ^ Bold indicates champion for that year. Italic indicates host for that year.
  3. ^ From 1960 to 1988, Russia competed as the Soviet Union, and in 1992 as CIS.
  4. ^ From 1960 to 1980, the Czech Republic competed as Czechoslovakia.
  5. ^ From 1972 to 1988, Germany competed as West Germany.
  6. ^ From 1960 to 1980, Slovakia competed as Czechoslovakia.

Discover more about Qualification related topics

Convention Centre Dublin

Convention Centre Dublin

The Convention Centre Dublin is a convention centre in the Dublin Docklands, Ireland. The Convention centre overlooks the River Liffey at Spencer Dock. It was designed by the Irish-born American architect Kevin Roche. Construction started in 1998 and the building opened in 2010. From June 2020 it acted as a temporary location for Dáil Éireann due to the necessity to implement social distancing because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dublin

Dublin

Dublin is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 census it had a population of 1,173,179, while the preliminary results of the 2022 census recorded that County Dublin as a whole had a population of 1,450,701, and that the population of the Greater Dublin Area was over 2 million, or roughly 40% of the Republic of Ireland's total population.

2018 FIFA World Cup

2018 FIFA World Cup

The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awarded the hosting rights in 2010. It was the eleventh time the championships had been held in Europe, and the first time they were held in Eastern Europe. At an estimated cost of over $14.2 billion, it was the most expensive World Cup ever held until it was surpassed by the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Kosovo national football team

Kosovo national football team

The Kosovo national football team represents Kosovo in men's international football. The team is controlled by the Football Federation of Kosovo, the governing body for football in Kosovo, and is under the jurisdiction of FIFA globally.

2018–19 UEFA Nations League

2018–19 UEFA Nations League

The 2018–19 UEFA Nations League was the inaugural season of the UEFA Nations League, an international association football competition involving the men's national teams of the 55 member associations of UEFA. The league phase of the competition was played between September and November 2018, with the finals tournament for the group winners from League A taking place in Portugal in June 2019. Team performances in the league phase were used to seed teams for the qualifying group stage of UEFA Euro 2020, and awarded berths in the play-offs, which decided four of the twenty-four final tournament slots.

Belgium national football team

Belgium national football team

The Belgium national football team officially represents Belgium in men's international football since their maiden match in 1904. The squad is under the global jurisdiction of FIFA and is governed in Europe by UEFA—both of which were co-founded by the Belgian team's supervising body, the Royal Belgian Football Association. Periods of regular Belgian representation at the highest international level, from 1920 to 1938, from 1982 to 2002 and again from 2014 onwards, have alternated with mostly unsuccessful qualification rounds. Most of Belgium's home matches are played at the King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels.

Italy national football team

Italy national football team

The Italy national football team has represented Italy in international football since its first match in 1910. The national team is controlled by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), the governing body for football in Italy, which is a co-founder and member of UEFA. Italy's home matches are played at various stadiums throughout Italy, and its primary training ground and technical headquarters, Centro Tecnico Federale di Coverciano, is located in Florence. Italy are the reigning European champions, having won UEFA Euro 2020.

France national football team

France national football team

The France national football team represents France in men's international football matches. It is governed by the French Football Federation, the governing body for football in France. It is a member of UEFA in Europe and FIFA in global competitions. The team's colors and imagery reference two national symbols: the French red-white-blue tricolour and Gallic rooster. The team is colloquially known as Les Bleus. They play home matches at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis and train at INF Clairefontaine in Clairefontaine-en-Yvelines.

Germany national football team

Germany national football team

The Germany national football team represents Germany in men's international football and played its first match in 1908. The team is governed by the German Football Association, founded in 1900. Between 1949 and 1990, separate German national teams were recognised by FIFA due to Allied occupation and division: the DFB's team representing the Federal Republic of Germany, the Saarland team representing the Saar Protectorate (1950–1956) and the East Germany team representing the German Democratic Republic (1952–1990). The latter two were absorbed along with their records; the present team represents the reunified Federal Republic. The official name and code "Germany FR (FRG)" was shortened to "Germany (GER)" following reunification in 1990.

Finland national football team

Finland national football team

The Finland national football team represents Finland in men's international football competitions and is controlled by the Football Association of Finland, the governing body for football in Finland, which was founded in 1907. The team has been a member of FIFA since 1908 and a UEFA member since 1957.

1998 FIFA World Cup

1998 FIFA World Cup

The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for the second time in the history of the tournament, defeating Morocco in the bidding process. It was the second time that France staged the competition and the ninth time that it was held in Europe. Spanning 32 days, it is the longest World Cup tournament ever held.

Netherlands national football team

Netherlands national football team

The Netherlands national football team has represented the Netherlands in international men's football matches since 1905. The men's national team is controlled by the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB), the governing body for football in the Netherlands, which is a part of UEFA, under the jurisdiction of FIFA. They were sometimes regarded as the greatest national team of the respective generations. Most of the Netherlands home matches are played at the Johan Cruyff Arena, De Kuip, Philips Stadion and De Grolsch Veste.

Venues

The 13 original venues were selected and announced by UEFA on 19 September 2014.[108] However, the UEFA Executive Committee removed Brussels as a host city on 7 December 2017 due to delays with the building of Eurostadium. The four matches (three group stage, one round of 16) initially scheduled to be held in Brussels were reallocated to Wembley Stadium in London.[9] On 23 April 2021, UEFA announced that due to a lack of guarantees regarding spectators caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Aviva Stadium in Dublin was removed as a tournament host. Their four matches were reallocated to Krestovsky Stadium in Saint Petersburg for the three group stage matches, and Wembley Stadium in London for the round of 16 fixture. Similarly, UEFA reassigned the four matches in Spain elsewhere in the country, with La Cartuja in Seville replacing San Mamés in Bilbao.[10]

On 7 December 2017, it was also announced that the opening match would take place at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, chosen ahead of Amsterdam, Glasgow and Saint Petersburg. UEFA decided that if they qualified, the opening match would feature Italy.[9][109]

Of the eleven selected cities and countries, seven cities and six countries had never hosted a European Championship finals match before. Seville was not a venue when Spain hosted the 1964 European Nations' Cup, and none of Azerbaijan, Denmark, Hungary, Romania, Russia or Scotland had hosted the tournament previously. Of the eleven selected stadiums, only two had hosted a European Championship match before: the Stadio Olimpico (1968 and 1980) and the Johan Cruyff Arena (2000). The original Wembley stadium hosted games and the final in UEFA Euro 1996, but although it stood on the same site, this was classified as a different stadium to the current Wembley Stadium.

England London Italy Rome Germany Munich
Wembley Stadium Stadio Olimpico Allianz Arena
Capacity: 90,000 Capacity: 70,634 Capacity: 70,000
Wembley-Stadion 2013 16x10.jpg L'Olimpico - panoramio.jpg München - Allianz-Arena (Luftbild).jpg
Azerbaijan Baku Russia Saint Petersburg Hungary Budapest
Olympic Stadium Krestovsky Stadium Puskás Aréna
Capacity: 68,000 Capacity: 68,134 Capacity: 67,215
Baku Olympic Stadium panorama 1.JPG Spb 06-2017 img40 Krestovsky Stadium (cropped).jpg Puskás Aréna 05.jpg
Spain Seville Romania Bucharest Netherlands Amsterdam Scotland Glasgow Denmark Copenhagen
La Cartuja Arena Națională Johan Cruyff Arena Hampden Park Parken Stadium
Capacity: 57,600 Capacity: 55,600 Capacity: 54,990 Capacity: 51,866 Capacity: 38,065
Panoramio - V&A Dudush - Estadio Olímpico 57 619.jpg Arena-bukareszt.jpg Amsterdam Arena Roof Open.jpg Hampden Park (Glasgow) aerial view cropped.jpg Parken from the air 2.JPG

Each city hosted three group stage matches and one match in the round of 16 or quarter-finals, with the exception of Saint Petersburg, which hosted six group stage matches, and London, which hosted host two matches in the round of 16. The match allocation for the eleven stadiums is as follows:

Group stage hosts

The host cities were divided into six pairings, established on the basis of sporting strength (assuming all host teams qualify), geographical considerations and security/political constraints. The pairings were allocated to groups by means of a random draw on 7 December 2017. Each qualified host country played a minimum of two matches at home. The following group venue pairings were announced:[9]

The following criteria applied to define the home matches of host teams within the same group:[110]

  • If both host teams qualified directly or both advanced to the play-offs, a draw determined which team would play all three group stage matches at home (including the head-to-head match), and which one played only two matches at home.
  • If one host team qualified directly, and the other failed to also directly qualify, the directly qualified host team played all three group stage matches at home, and the other host, if qualified, would play only two.
  • If one host team advanced to the play-offs, and the other was eliminated entirely, the host team in the play-offs, if qualified, had played all three group stage matches at home.
  • No action was necessary should both host teams failed to have qualified.

If a host team in the play-offs failed to qualify, the path winner would take the spot of the host in the match schedule and therefore would play the two or three matches based on the above criteria in the host city of the respective host that failed to qualify. The draw took place on 22 November 2019, 12:00 CET, at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland (along with the draw for the play-offs).[111] In the draw, which was only necessary for Group B (Denmark and Russia), two balls were prepared, with the first drawn hosting the three matches.[112]

Allocation of group stage home matches to host countries
Group Host Status of host Draw Number of home matches
Three Two
A  Azerbaijan Eliminated in qualifying group stage No  Italy None
 Italy Qualified directly to finals
B  Denmark Qualified directly to finals Yes  Denmark  Russia
 Russia Qualified directly to finals
C  Netherlands Qualified directly to finals No  Netherlands None
 Romania Eliminated via play-offs
D  England Qualified directly to finals No  England  Scotland
 Scotland Qualified via play-offs
E  Republic of Ireland[a] Eliminated via play-offs No  Spain None
 Spain Qualified directly to finals
F  Germany Qualified directly to finals No  Germany  Hungary
 Hungary Qualified via play-offs
  1. ^ a b In April 2021, Dublin was removed as a tournament host, with their group stage matches reallocated to Saint Petersburg, who were already hosts of Group B.

Spectator limits

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting restrictions on public gatherings, many of the venues at the tournament were unable to operate at full capacity. UEFA asked each host to devise a spectator plan in conjunction with their local/national government and health authorities. The hosts were given a deadline of 7 April 2021 to communicate their plans with UEFA. On 9 April, UEFA announced that eight of the tournament hosts had confirmed their stadium capacities, ranging from 25% to 100%. The remaining four hosts (Bilbao, Dublin, Munich and Rome) were given an extension until 23 April to submit their venue capacities.[58] On 14 April, UEFA announced that Rome had also confirmed its venue capacity.[59] On 23 April, the venue capacity for Munich was also confirmed, while Bilbao was replaced by Seville, which could guarantee spectators. In addition, Dublin was removed as a host, as it was unable to ensure spectators could attend.[10]

Many of the matches did not see stadiums filled to their allowed capacity, with only Netherlands group stage matches that were played at the Johan Cruyff Arena seeing the stadium come within less than a thousand seats of being full. The match between England and Croatia saw an attendance of 18,497, compared to the allowed capacity of 22,500, with UEFA suggesting quarantine restrictions as the cause for the smaller attendance.[113]

Allowed capacities of UEFA Euro 2020 venues
City Venue Standard capacity Allowed capacity
Amsterdam Johan Cruyff Arena 54,990 At least 33% (approximately 16,000), subject to possible increase[114]
Baku Olympic Stadium 68,700 50% (approximately 34,350), with no foreign spectators permitted other than citizens of participating teams[115]
Bucharest Arena Națională 55,600 At least 25% (approximately 13,000) for the group stage and 50% (approximately 25,000) for the round of 16 match[116][117]
Budapest Puskás Aréna 67,215 Full capacity, subject to spectators fulfilling strict stadium entry requirements
Copenhagen Parken Stadium 38,065 40% (approximately 15,900) for the first match against Finland and 67% (approximately 25,000) for the remaining two group stage matches and the round of 16 match.[118]
Glasgow Hampden Park 51,866 25% (approximately 12,000)[119]
London Wembley Stadium 90,000 25% (approximately 22,500) for the group stage and the first match in the round of 16, 50% (approximately 45,000) for the second match in the round of 16 and 67% (approximately 60,000) for the semi-finals and final[120]
Munich Allianz Arena 70,000 20% (14,000)[121]
Rome Stadio Olimpico 70,634 At least 25% (approximately 17,659), subject to possible increase[122]
Saint Petersburg Krestovsky Stadium 68,134 At least 50% (approximately 34,067), subject to possible increase
Seville Estadio de La Cartuja 60,000 30% (approximately 18,000)

Team base camps

Each team chose a "team base camp" for its stay between the matches. The teams trained and resided in these locations throughout the tournament, travelling to games staged away from their bases. Unlike previous tournaments, each team could set up their base camp anywhere due to the pan-European format, without any obligation of staying in any of the host countries.[123]

The base camps selected by the 20 directly qualified teams were announced by UEFA on 27 January 2020.[124] The base camps of the remaining teams qualified via the play-offs were announced in 2021.[125]

Team Base camp
 Austria Seefeld in Tirol, Austria
 Belgium Tubize, Belgium
 Croatia Rovinj, Croatia[a]
 Czech Republic Prague, Czech Republic[b]
 Denmark Helsingør, Denmark
 England Burton upon Trent, England
 Finland Repino, Saint Petersburg, Russia
 France Clairefontaine-en-Yvelines, France
 Germany Herzogenaurach, Germany
 Hungary Telki, Hungary
 Italy Coverciano, Florence, Italy
 Netherlands Zeist, Netherlands
 North Macedonia Bucharest, Romania
 Poland Sopot, Poland[c]
 Portugal Budapest, Hungary
 Russia Novogorsk, Khimki, Russia
 Scotland Hurworth-on-Tees, England[128]
 Slovakia Saint Petersburg, Russia[d]
 Spain Las Rozas de Madrid, Spain
 Sweden Gothenburg, Sweden[e]
 Switzerland Rome, Italy
 Turkey Baku, Azerbaijan
 Ukraine Bucharest, Romania
 Wales Baku, Azerbaijan
  1. ^ Originally St Andrews, Scotland,[124] but moved due to COVID-19 quarantine restrictions in Scotland.[126]
  2. ^ Originally Currie, Edinburgh, Scotland,[124] but moved due to COVID-19 quarantine restrictions in Scotland[127]
  3. ^ Originally Portmarnock, Republic of Ireland[124]
  4. ^ Originally Castleknock, Republic of Ireland,[129][130]
  5. ^ Originally Maynooth, Republic of Ireland.[124]

Discover more about Venues related topics

Brussels

Brussels

Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, is a region of Belgium comprising 19 municipalities, including the City of Brussels, which is the capital of Belgium. The Brussels-Capital Region is located in the central portion of the country and is a part of both the French Community of Belgium and the Flemish Community, but is separate from the Flemish Region and the Walloon Region.

Eurostadium

Eurostadium

Eurostadium was a proposed stadium in Grimbergen, Belgium, just north of Brussels. It would have had a capacity of 62,613. In June 2015, the building deadline was set for 2019. It would have hosted matches for UEFA Euro 2020, and would have become the home ground of the national football team of Belgium.

London

London

London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a 50-mile (80 km) estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major settlement for two millennia. The City of London, its ancient core and financial centre, was founded by the Romans as Londinium and retains its medieval boundaries. The City of Westminster, to the west of the City of London, has for centuries hosted the national government and parliament. Since the 19th century, the name "London" has also referred to the metropolis around this core, historically split between the counties of Middlesex, Essex, Surrey, Kent, and Hertfordshire, which since 1965 has largely comprised Greater London, which is governed by 33 local authorities and the Greater London Authority.

Aviva Stadium

Aviva Stadium

Aviva Stadium is a sports stadium located in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, with a capacity for 51,711 spectators. It is built on the site of the former Lansdowne Road Stadium, which was demolished in 2007, and replaced it as home to its chief tenants: the Irish rugby union team and the Republic of Ireland football team. The decision to redevelop the stadium came after plans for both Stadium Ireland and Eircom Park fell through. Aviva Group Ireland signed a 10-year deal for the naming rights in 2009.

Dublin

Dublin

Dublin is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 census it had a population of 1,173,179, while the preliminary results of the 2022 census recorded that County Dublin as a whole had a population of 1,450,701, and that the population of the Greater Dublin Area was over 2 million, or roughly 40% of the Republic of Ireland's total population.

Krestovsky Stadium

Krestovsky Stadium

Krestovsky Stadium, known as Gazprom Arena for sponsorship reasons, is a retractable roof stadium with a retractable pitch in the western portion of Krestovsky Island in Saint Petersburg, Russia, which serves as home for FC Zenit Saint Petersburg. The stadium was opened in 2017 for the FIFA Confederations Cup. It is called Saint Petersburg Stadium during major international tournaments, including the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup, 2018 FIFA World Cup, and UEFA Euro 2020. It was to host the 2022 UEFA Champions League Final, but as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, UEFA moved the final out of Russia and to the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, a suburb of Paris.

Estadio de La Cartuja

Estadio de La Cartuja

Estadio La Cartuja, formerly Estadio Olímpico de Sevilla, officially known as Estadio La Cartuja de Sevilla, is a multi-purpose stadium situated in the Isla de la Cartuja in Seville, Spain. It is used mostly for football and it is commonly referred to as simply 'La Cartuja'. It was completed in 1999 for the World Championships in Athletics. With a capacity of 57,619 seats, La Cartuja is the 5th-largest stadium in Spain and the 2nd-largest in Andalusia. It was the venue for the 2003 UEFA Cup Final between Celtic and Porto.

Bilbao

Bilbao

Bilbao is a city in northern Spain, the largest city in the province of Biscay and in the Basque Country as a whole. It is also the largest city proper in northern Spain. Bilbao is the tenth largest city in Spain, with a population of 346,843 as of 2019. The Bilbao metropolitan area has 1,037,847 inhabitants, making it the most populous metropolitan area in northern Spain; with a population of 875,552 comarca of Greater Bilbao is the fifth-largest urban area in Spain. Bilbao is also the main urban area in what is defined as the Greater Basque region.

Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 921,402 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the urban area and 2,480,394 in the metropolitan area. Located in the Dutch province of North Holland, Amsterdam is colloquially referred to as the "Venice of the North", for its large number of canals, now designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated population of 635,640. The city was made a county of itself in 1893, prior to which it had been in the historic county of Lanarkshire. The city now forms the Glasgow City Council area, one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, and is governed by Glasgow City Council. It is situated on the River Clyde in the country's West Central Lowlands.

Italy national football team

Italy national football team

The Italy national football team has represented Italy in international football since its first match in 1910. The national team is controlled by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), the governing body for football in Italy, which is a co-founder and member of UEFA. Italy's home matches are played at various stadiums throughout Italy, and its primary training ground and technical headquarters, Centro Tecnico Federale di Coverciano, is located in Florence. Italy are the reigning European champions, having won UEFA Euro 2020.

1964 European Nations' Cup

1964 European Nations' Cup

The 1964 European Nations' Cup was the second edition of the UEFA European Championship. The final tournament was held in Spain. It was won by the hosts 2–1 over the defending champions, the Soviet Union.

Final draw

The draw for the final tournament was held on 30 November 2019, 18:00 CET (19:00 local time, EET) at Romexpo in Bucharest, Romania.[131][132][133][106] The 24 teams were drawn into six groups of four. The identity of the four play-off teams were not known at the time of the draw and were identified as play-off winners A to D.[134] Should there have been groups that could not be finalised at the time of the final tournament draw, another draw would have been held after the play-offs on 1 April 2020,[1] but UEFA confirmed the additional draw was not necessary after the identity of the 20 directly qualified teams and the 16 play-offs teams was known.[112]

The teams were seeded in accordance with the European Qualifiers overall ranking based on their results in UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying. The following was the standard composition of the draw pots:[135]

  • Pot 1: Group winners ranked 1–6
  • Pot 2: Group winners ranked 7–10, group runners-up ranked 1–2 (11–12 overall)
  • Pot 3: Group runners-up ranked 3–8 (13–18 overall)
  • Pot 4: Group runners-up ranked 9–10 (19–20 overall), play-off winners A–D (identity unknown at the time of the draw)

As two host teams from the same group could not be in the same seeding pot, the UEFA Emergency Panel would have either switched one host team with the lowest-ranked team of the higher pot, or switched one host team with the highest-ranked team of the lower pot (based on the principle that the move would have minimal impact on the original seeding). However, no seeding adjustments were necessary.

The draw started with Pot 1 and completed with Pot 4, from where a team was drawn and assigned to the first available group. The position in the group (for the determination of the match schedule) was then drawn. In the draw, the following conditions applied (including for teams that could still qualify via the play-offs):[136]

  • Automatic group assignments: Host teams were automatically assigned to their group based on the host city pairings.
  • Prohibited clashes: For political reasons, UEFA set pairs of teams that were considered prohibited clashes. In addition to being unable to be drawn into the same group, non-host teams were prevented from being drawn into a group hosted by a country they clash with, even should the host not qualify. Only one prohibited clash, Russia / Ukraine, applied during the group stage draw. Other prohibited clashes among qualified and play-off teams were Kosovo / Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo / Serbia, but the teams in these pairs were all in the play-offs and in Pot 4 for the draw, and would not be in the same group; Kosovo / Russia was also prohibited,[137] but they also would not be in the same group due to play-off path pairings necessary for host allocation. However, these prohibited clashes are not excluded for the knockout phase.

Play-off path group allocation

Due to the format of the play-offs, which made anticipating all possible scenarios impossible, the UEFA administration had to wait to solve issues relating to the final tournament draw until the completion of the qualifying group stage.[110] It was not possible for UEFA to prevent one of the play-off paths from containing two host teams, resulting in Romania (Group C hosts) and Hungary (Group F hosts) being drawn together in Path A. Therefore, the winner of this play-off path needed to be assigned two groups in the final tournament draw. To allow for this, Path A was paired with Path D (which does not contain a host), therefore providing a clear scenario for each possible qualified team. A draw took place on 22 November 2019, 12:00 CET, at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland (along with the play-offs draw), which decided on the order of priority for the allocation of Path A to the final tournament groups.[112]

Two balls were prepared containing the names of the two groups hosted by the teams in question (Group C and Group F for Romania and Hungary, respectively). The first ball drawn determined the group ("priority group") that was allocated to Path A, with the exception of the host team of the second ball drawn ("non-priority group") winning Path A. In the draw, Group F was selected as the priority group, resulting in the following possible outcomes:

  • Path A is won by Bulgaria, Hungary or Iceland: The winner of Path A will enter Group F, and the winner of Path D will enter Group C. (As Romania lost in the semi-finals of the play-offs, this was the resulting group assignment.)
  • Path A is won by Romania: Romania will enter Group C, and the winner of Path D will enter Group F.

Seeding

The following was the composition of the pots, with teams divided and seeded as per their European Qualifiers overall ranking:[138]

Pot 1
Team Host Rank
 Belgium[a] 1
 Italy Group A 2
 England Group D 3
 Germany Group F 4
 Spain Group E 5
 Ukraine[a] 6
Pot 2
Team Host Rank
 France 7
 Poland 8
 Switzerland 9
 Croatia 10
 Netherlands Group C 11
 Russia Group B 12
Pot 3
Team Host Rank
 Portugal 13
 Turkey 14
 Denmark Group B 15
 Austria 16
 Sweden 17
 Czech Republic 18
Pot 4[b]
Team Host Rank
 Wales 19
 Finland 20
Play-off winner A Group C & F[c]
Play-off winner B Group E[d]
Play-off winner C Group D[e]
Play-off winner D[f]
  1. ^ a b Ukraine could not be drawn into the same group as Russia (Group B host). Since they also could not be drawn into any of the other four groups with Pot 1 hosts, Ukraine were assigned to Group C. Consequently, Belgium were assigned to Group B.
  2. ^ Identity of the four play-off winners was unknown at the time of the draw.
  3. ^ Romania (Group C host) and Hungary (Group F host) competed in play-off Path A, and thus the winner of Path A was assigned to two groups (Group C and Group F), with the final assignment depending on the identity of the Path A winner.
  4. ^ Republic of Ireland (original Group E host) competed in play-off Path B, and thus the winner of Path B was assigned to Group E.
  5. ^ Scotland (Group D host) competed in play-off Path C, and thus the winner of Path C was assigned to Group D.
  6. ^ Play-off Path D was paired with Path A (which contained two hosts), and thus the winner of Path D was assigned to two groups (Group C and Group F), with the final assignment depending on the identity of the Path A winner.

Draw results and group fixtures

The draw resulted in the following groups (teams in italics are play-off winners whose identity was not known at the time of the draw):

Group A
Pos Team
A1  Turkey
A2  Italy[a]
A3  Wales
A4  Switzerland
Group B
Pos Team
B1  Denmark[a]
B2  Finland
B3  Belgium
B4  Russia[b]
Group C
Pos Team
C1  Netherlands[a]
C2  Ukraine
C3  Austria
C4  North Macedonia
Group D
Pos Team
D1  England[a]
D2  Croatia
D3  Scotland[b]
D4  Czech Republic
Group E
Pos Team
E1  Spain[a]
E2  Sweden
E3  Poland
E4  Slovakia
Group F
Pos Team
F1  Hungary[b]
F2  Portugal
F3  France
F4  Germany[a]
  1. ^ a b c d e f Tournament host that would play all three group stage matches at home.
  2. ^ a b c Tournament host that would play two group stage matches at home.

The fixtures for the group stage were decided based on the draw results, as follows:

Note: Positions for scheduling did not use the seeding pots, and instead used the draw positions, e.g. Team 1 was not necessarily the team from Pot 1 in the draw.

Group stage schedule
Matchday Dates Matches
Matchday 1 11–15 June 2021 1 v 2, 3 v 4
Matchday 2 16–19 June 2021 1 v 3, 2 v 4
Matchday 3 20–23 June 2021 4 v 1, 2 v 3

Discover more about Final draw related topics

Central European Time

Central European Time

Central European Time (CET) is a standard time of Central- and parts of Western Europe which is 1 hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). The time offset from UTC can be written as UTC+01:00. It is used in most parts of Europe and in a few North African countries. CET is also known as Middle European Time and by colloquial names such as Amsterdam Time, Berlin Time, Brussels Time, Madrid Time, Paris Time, Rome Time, Warsaw Time or even Romance Standard Time (RST).

Eastern European Time

Eastern European Time

Eastern European Time (EET) is one of the names of UTC+02:00 time zone, 2 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. The zone uses daylight saving time, so that it uses UTC+03:00 during the summer.

Romexpo

Romexpo

Romexpo, also known as Romexpo Dome or Romexpo Town, is a large exhibition center and indoor arena in Bucharest, Romania. It is primarily used for exhibitions, concerts, and sporting events. The complex also hosts more than 140 other exhibits and trade shows every year. It is 303,234 square metres (3,263,980 sq ft), houses 100,000 square metres (1,100,000 sq ft) under roof, spread throughout 11 pavilions.

Bucharest

Bucharest

Bucharest is the capital and largest city of Romania. It is described as the cultural, financial, entertainment, and media center in the country with a significant influence in Eastern and Southeastern Europe as well. It is also a city with a significant influence in terms of education, tourism, research, technology, health care, art, fashion, sports, and politics. It is located in the south-east of Romania, on the banks of the Dâmbovița river, less than 60 km (37.3 mi) north of the Danube River and the border with Bulgaria. It is also one of the most populated cities of the European Union (EU) within city limits and the most populated capital in Southeastern Europe. It was the capital of Wallachia from 1659 to 1859 and the capital of the United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia from 1859 to 1881.

UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying

UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying

The UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying tournament was a football competition that was played from March 2019 to November 2020 to determine the 24 UEFA member men's national teams that advanced to the UEFA Euro 2020 final tournament, played across Europe in June and July 2021. The competition was linked with the 2018–19 UEFA Nations League, giving countries a secondary route to qualify for the final tournament. For the first time since 1976, no team automatically qualified for the UEFA European Championship as the host country.

Russo-Ukrainian War

Russo-Ukrainian War

The Russo-Ukrainian War is an ongoing international conflict between Russia and Russian-backed separatists, against Ukraine, which began in February 2014. Following Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity, Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine and supported pro-Russian separatists fighting the Ukrainian military in the Donbas war. The first eight years of conflict also included naval incidents, cyberwarfare, and heightened political tensions. In February 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Bosnia and Herzegovina–Kosovo relations

Bosnia and Herzegovina–Kosovo relations

Bosnia and Herzegovina relations with Kosovo are unofficial because Bosnia and Herzegovina's central government has not recognized Kosovo as an independence state, essentially through the veto of the Bosnian Serb-dominated Republika Srpska.

Kosovo–Serbia relations

Kosovo–Serbia relations

Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008, a move which Serbia rejects. Serbia does not recognize Kosovo as an independent state and continues to claim it as the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija. Initially there were no relations between the two; however, in the following years there has been increased dialogue and cooperation between the two sides.

UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying play-offs

UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying play-offs

The play-offs of the UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying tournament decided the last four teams that qualified for the UEFA Euro 2020 final tournament, to be staged across Europe in June and July 2021. Unlike previous editions, the participants of the play-offs were not decided based on results from the qualifying group stage. Instead, 16 teams that failed to qualify through their group were selected based on their performance in the 2018–19 UEFA Nations League. The sixteen teams were then divided into four paths, each containing four teams, with each play-off path featuring two single-leg semi-finals and one single-leg final. The four play-off path winners joined the twenty teams that had already qualified for UEFA Euro 2020. The matches were originally scheduled for March 2020, but were postponed to 8 October and 12 November 2020 by UEFA due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe.

Romania national football team

Romania national football team

The Romania national football team represents Romania in international men's football competition and is administered by the Romanian Football Federation, also known as FRF. They are colloquially known as Tricolorii.

Hungary national football team

Hungary national football team

The Hungary national football team represents Hungary in men's international football and is controlled by the Hungarian Football Federation. The team has made 9 appearances in the FIFA World Cup and 4 appearances in the European Championship, and plays its home matches at the Puskás Aréna, which opened in November 2019.

Nyon

Nyon

Nyon is a municipality in Nyon District in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. It is located some 25 kilometers north east of Geneva's city centre, and since the 1970s it has become part of the Geneva metropolitan area. It lies on the shores of Lake Geneva and is the seat of Nyon District. The town has a population of 21,718 and is famous in the sporting world for being the headquarters of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and the European Club Association (ECA). It is connected to the rest of Switzerland by way of the Route Suisse, the A1 Motorway and the railways of the Arc Lémanique.

Squads

To lessen the load on players due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and in case of an outbreak within a team, squad sizes were increased from 23 (used at every European Championship since 2004) to 26. However, the maximum number of players permitted on the match sheet for each tournament fixture remained 23.[83] Each nation's squad, which had to include three goalkeepers, was submitted at least ten days before the opening match of the tournament (by 1 June 2021). If a player became injured or ill severely enough to prevent his participation in the tournament before his team's first match, he could be replaced by another player;[1] however, goalkeepers could still be replaced after their team's first match due to physical incapacity.[83]

Match officials

On 27 September 2018, the UEFA Executive Committee approved the use of the video assistant referee (VAR) system for the first time at the UEFA European Championship.[8] On 12 February 2020, UEFA and CONMEBOL signed a memorandum of understanding to enhance collaboration, including the possibility of a team of South American match officials appointed for the group stage of the tournament.[139]

On 21 April 2021, UEFA announced the 19 refereeing teams for the tournament.[140] This included Argentine referee Fernando Rapallini and his assistants, who were the first South American officials to be selected for the European Championship as part of UEFA's referee exchange programme with CONMEBOL. A group of Spanish officials were similarly selected for the 2021 Copa América.[141]

A refereeing team of nine officials was appointed for each match. The team of five at the stadium consisted of a referee, two assistant referees, a fourth official and a reserve assistant referee.[141] In addition, four video match officials were located at UEFA's headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland. This team consisted of a video assistant referee (the lead video official who was the main point of contact with the referee), an assistant video assistant referee (AVAR 1, who concentrated on following the match), an offside VAR (AVAR 2, who reviewed all potential offside situations) and a support VAR (AVAR 3, who acted in a coordination capacity).[142] The tournament used the 2021 Laws of the Game, which came into force on 1 July but could be introduced in competitions that began immediately beforehand.[143]

Refereeing teams
Country Referee Assistant referees Matches assigned[144]
 Germany Felix Brych Mark Borsch
Stefan Lupp
Netherlands–Ukraine (Group C)
Finland–Belgium (Group B)
Belgium–Portugal (Round of 16)
Ukraine–England (Quarter-finals)
Italy–Spain (Semi-finals)
 Turkey Cüneyt Çakır Bahattin Duran
Tarık Ongun
Hungary–Portugal (Group F)
Ukraine–Austria (Group C)
Croatia–Spain (Round of 16)
 Spain Carlos del Cerro Grande Juan Carlos Yuste Jiménez
Roberto Alonso Fernández
France–Germany (Group F)
Croatia–Czech Republic (Group D)
 Sweden Andreas Ekberg Mehmet Culum
Stefan Hallberg
Austria–North Macedonia (Group C)
 Israel Orel Grinfeld Roy Hassan
Idan Yarkoni
Netherlands–Austria (Group C)
 Romania Ovidiu Hațegan Radu Ghinguleac
Sebastian Gheorghe
Poland–Slovakia (Group E)
Italy–Wales (Group A)
 Russia Sergei Karasev Igor Demeshko
Maksim Gavrilin
Italy–Switzerland (Group A)
Germany–Hungary (Group F)
Netherlands–Czech Republic (Round of 16)
 Romania István Kovács Vasile Marinescu
Ovidiu Artene
North Macedonia–Netherlands (Group C)
 Netherlands Björn Kuipers Sander van Roekel
Erwin Zeinstra
Denmark–Belgium (Group B)
Slovakia–Spain (Group E)
Czech Republic–Denmark (Quarter-finals)
Italy–England (Final)
 Netherlands Danny Makkelie Hessel Steegstra
Jan de Vries
Turkey–Italy (Group A)
Finland–Russia (Group B)
England–Germany (Round of 16)
England–Denmark (Semi-finals)
 Spain Antonio Mateu Lahoz Pau Cebrián Devís
Roberto Díaz Pérez del Palomar
Belgium–Russia (Group B)
England–Scotland (Group D)
Portugal–France (Group F)
 England Michael Oliver Stuart Burt
Simon Bennett
Hungary–France (Group F)
Sweden–Poland (Group E)
Switzerland–Spain (Quarter-finals)
 Italy Daniele Orsato Alessandro Giallatini
Fabiano Preti
England–Croatia (Group D)
Spain–Poland (Group E)
Sweden–Ukraine (Round of 16)
 Argentina Fernando Rapallini Juan Pablo Belatti
Diego Bonfá
Ukraine–North Macedonia (Group C)
Croatia–Scotland (Group D)
France–Switzerland (Round of 16)
 Germany Daniel Siebert Jan Seidel
Rafael Foltyn
Scotland–Czech Republic (Group D)
Sweden–Slovakia (Group E)
Wales–Denmark (Round of 16)
 Portugal Artur Soares Dias Rui Tavares
Paulo Soares
Turkey–Wales (Group A)
Czech Republic–England (Group D)
 England Anthony Taylor Gary Beswick
Adam Nunn
Denmark–Finland (Group B)
Portugal–Germany (Group F)
Italy–Austria (Round of 16)
 France Clément Turpin Nicolas Danos
Cyril Gringore
Wales–Switzerland (Group A)
Russia–Denmark (Group B)
 Slovenia Slavko Vinčić Tomaž Klančnik
Andraž Kovačič
Spain–Sweden (Group E)
Switzerland–Turkey (Group A)
Belgium–Italy (Quarter-finals)

In addition, UEFA announced 22 video match officials and twelve support match officials (who acted as fourth official or reserve assistant referee).[140] This included support referee Stéphanie Frappart, the first female official at the UEFA European Championship finals.[141]

Video match officials
Country Video assistant referees Offside VAR
 England Stuart Attwell
Chris Kavanagh
Lee Betts
 France Jérôme Brisard
François Letexier
Benjamin Pagès
 Germany Bastian Dankert
Christian Dingert
Marco Fritz
Christian Gittelmann
 Italy Marco Di Bello
Massimiliano Irrati
Paolo Valeri
Filippo Meli
 Netherlands Kevin Blom
Pol van Boekel
 Poland Paweł Gil
 Portugal João Pinheiro
 Spain Alejandro Hernández Hernández
Juan Martínez Munuera
José María Sánchez Martínez
Íñigo Prieto López de Cerain
Support match officials
Country Fourth official Reserve assistant referee
 Bulgaria Georgi Kabakov Martin Margaritov
 France Stéphanie Frappart Mikaël Berchebru
 Italy Davide Massa Stefano Alassio
 Poland Bartosz Frankowski Marcin Boniek
 Serbia Srđan Jovanović Uroš Stojković
 Switzerland Sandro Schärer Stéphane De Almeida

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CONMEBOL

CONMEBOL

The South American Football Confederation is the continental governing body of football in South America and it is one of FIFA's six continental confederations. The oldest continental confederation in the world, its headquarters are located in Luque, Paraguay, near Asunción. CONMEBOL is responsible for the organization and governance of South American football's major international tournaments. With 10 member soccer associations, it has the fewest members of all the confederations in FIFA.

Memorandum of understanding

Memorandum of understanding

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) is a type of agreement between two (bilateral) or more (multilateral) parties. It expresses a convergence of will between the parties, indicating an intended common line of action. It is often used either in cases where parties do not imply a legal commitment or in situations where the parties cannot create a legally enforceable agreement. It is a more formal alternative to a gentlemen's agreement.

Fernando Rapallini

Fernando Rapallini

Fernando Andrés Rapallini is an Argentine football referee who officiates in the Argentine Primera División. He has been a FIFA referee since 2014.

2021 Copa América

2021 Copa América

The 2021 Copa América was the 47th edition of the Copa América, the international men's football championship organised by South America's football ruling body CONMEBOL. The tournament took place in Brazil from 13 June to 10 July 2021. The tournament was originally scheduled to take place from 12 June to 12 July 2020 in Argentina and Colombia as the 2020 Copa América. On 17 March 2020, CONMEBOL announced that due to the COVID-19 pandemic in South America, the tournament had been postponed for a year, in conjunction with UEFA's decision to also postpone UEFA Euro 2020 to 2021. This was the first time since 1991 where no guest nation took part in the tournament.

Referee (association football)

Referee (association football)

In association football, the referee is the person responsible for interpreting and enforcing the Laws of the Game during a match. The referee is the final decision-making authority on all facts connected with play, and is the match official with the authority to start and stop play and impose disciplinary action against players and coaches during a match.

Assistant referee (association football)

Assistant referee (association football)

In association football, an assistant referee is an official empowered with assisting the referee in enforcing the Laws of the Game during a match. Although assistants are not required under the Laws, at most organised levels of football the match officiating crew consists of the referee and at least two assistant referees. The responsibilities of the various assistant referees are listed in Law 6, "The Other Match Officials". In the current Laws the term "assistant referee" technically refers only to the two officials who generally patrol the touchlines, with the wider range of assistants to the referee given other titles.

Nyon

Nyon

Nyon is a municipality in Nyon District in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. It is located some 25 kilometers north east of Geneva's city centre, and since the 1970s it has become part of the Geneva metropolitan area. It lies on the shores of Lake Geneva and is the seat of Nyon District. The town has a population of 21,718 and is famous in the sporting world for being the headquarters of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and the European Club Association (ECA). It is connected to the rest of Switzerland by way of the Route Suisse, the A1 Motorway and the railways of the Arc Lémanique.

Laws of the Game (association football)

Laws of the Game (association football)

The Laws of the Game are the codified rules of association football. The laws mention the number of players a team should have, the game length, the size of the field and ball, the type and nature of fouls that referees may penalise, the offside law, and many other laws that define the sport. During a match, it is the task of the referee to interpret and enforce the Laws of the Game.

German Football Association

German Football Association

The German Football Association is the governing body of football, futsal, and beach soccer in Germany. A founding member of both FIFA and UEFA, the DFB has jurisdiction for the German football league system and is in charge of the men's and women's national teams. The DFB headquarters are in Frankfurt am Main. Sole members of the DFB are the German Football League, organising the professional Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga, along with five regional and 21 state associations, organising the semi-professional and amateur levels. The 21 state associations of the DFB have a combined number of more than 25,000 clubs with more than 6.8 million members, making the DFB the single largest sports federation in the world.

Felix Brych

Felix Brych

Felix Brych is a German football referee. He referees for SV Am Hart München of the Bavarian Football Association. He is a former FIFA referee and was ranked as a UEFA elite category referee.

UEFA Euro 2020 Group C

UEFA Euro 2020 Group C

Group C of UEFA Euro 2020 took place from 13 to 21 June 2021 in Amsterdam's Johan Cruyff Arena and Bucharest's Arena Națională. The group contained host nation the Netherlands, Ukraine, Austria and North Macedonia.

UEFA Euro 2020 Group B

UEFA Euro 2020 Group B

Group B of UEFA Euro 2020 took place from 12 to 21 June 2021 in Copenhagen's Parken Stadium and Saint Petersburg's Krestovsky Stadium. The group contained host nation Denmark, Finland, Belgium and host nation Russia. The head-to-head match between the hosts took place at Denmark's Parken Stadium.

Opening ceremony

The opening ceremony took place at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, Italy, on 11 June 2021 at 20:35 (CEST) prior to the first match of the tournament. Italian opera tenor Andrea Bocelli performed the song "Nessun dorma".[145] Martin Garrix, Bono and the Edge also featured, performing the tournament's official anthem, "We Are the People". The performance was a virtual one amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe and was filmed at motion-control studios in London and at the Stadio Olimpico to recreate the stadium environment in 3D.[146]

Discover more about Opening ceremony related topics

Stadio Olimpico

Stadio Olimpico

The Stadio Olimpico is the largest sports facility in Rome, Italy, seating over 70,000 spectators. It is located within the Foro Italico sports complex, north of the city. The structure is owned by the Italian National Olympic Committee and it is used primarily for association football. The Stadio Olimpico is the home stadium of the Roma and Lazio football clubs, and also hosts the Coppa Italia final. The Italian Rugby Union team also use the stadium for their home matches. It was rebuilt for the 1990 FIFA World Cup and it hosted the tournament final.

Central European Summer Time

Central European Summer Time

Central European Summer Time (CEST), sometimes referred to as Central European Daylight Time (CEDT), is the standard clock time observed during the period of summer daylight-saving in those European countries which observe Central European Time during the other part of the year. It corresponds to UTC+02:00, which makes it the same as Eastern European Time, Central Africa Time, South African Standard Time, Egypt Standard Time and Kaliningrad Time in Russia.

Andrea Bocelli

Andrea Bocelli

Andrea Bocelli is an Italian tenor. He was born visually impaired, with congenital glaucoma, and at the age of 12, Bocelli became completely blind, following a brain hemorrhage resulting from a football accident. After performing evenings in piano bars and competing in local singing contests, Bocelli signed his first recording contract with the Sugar Music label. He rose to fame in 1994, winning the newcomer’s section of the 44th Sanremo Music Festival performing "Il mare calmo della sera".

Nessun dorma

Nessun dorma

"Nessun dorma" is an aria from the final act of Giacomo Puccini's opera Turandot and one of the best-known tenor arias in all opera. It is sung by Calaf, il principe ignoto, who falls in love at first sight with the beautiful but cold Princess Turandot. Any man who wishes to wed Turandot must first answer her three riddles; if he fails, he will be beheaded. In the aria, Calaf expresses his triumphant assurance that he will win the princess.

Martin Garrix

Martin Garrix

Martijn Gerard Garritsen, known professionally as Martin Garrix and also as Ytram and GRX, is a Dutch DJ and record producer who was ranked number one on DJ Mag's Top 100 DJs list for three consecutive years—2016, 2017, and 2018. He is best known for his singles "Animals", "In the Name of Love", and "Scared to Be Lonely".

Bono

Bono

Paul David Hewson, known by his stage name Bono, is an Irish singer-songwriter, activist, and philanthropist. He is the lead vocalist and primary lyricist of the rock band U2.

The Edge

The Edge

David Howell Evans, better known as the Edge or simply Edge, is an English-born Irish musician, singer, and songwriter. He is best known as the lead guitarist, keyboardist, and backing vocalist of the rock band U2. A member of the group since its inception, he has recorded 14 studio albums with them as well as one solo record. His understated style of guitar playing, a signature of U2's music, is distinguished by chiming timbres, use of rhythmic delay, drone notes, harmonics, and an extensive use of effects units.

We Are the People (Martin Garrix song)

We Are the People (Martin Garrix song)

"We Are the People" is a song by Dutch DJ Martin Garrix, featuring Bono and the Edge from Irish rock band U2. It was officially released on 14 May 2021 as the official song for the UEFA Euro 2020. It was first performed in full at a virtual opening ceremony at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome.

COVID-19 pandemic in Europe

COVID-19 pandemic in Europe

The global COVID-19 pandemic arrived in Europe with its first confirmed case in Bordeaux, France, on 24 January 2020, and subsequently spread widely across the continent. By 17 March 2020, every country in Europe had confirmed a case, and all have reported at least one death, with the exception of Vatican City.

London

London

London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a 50-mile (80 km) estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major settlement for two millennia. The City of London, its ancient core and financial centre, was founded by the Romans as Londinium and retains its medieval boundaries. The City of Westminster, to the west of the City of London, has for centuries hosted the national government and parliament. Since the 19th century, the name "London" has also referred to the metropolis around this core, historically split between the counties of Middlesex, Essex, Surrey, Kent, and Hertfordshire, which since 1965 has largely comprised Greater London, which is governed by 33 local authorities and the Greater London Authority.

3D film

3D film

3D films are motion pictures made to give an illusion of three-dimensional solidity, usually with the help of special glasses worn by viewers. They have existed in some form since 1915, but had been largely relegated to a niche in the motion picture industry because of the costly hardware and processes required to produce and display a 3D film, and the lack of a standardized format for all segments of the entertainment business. Nonetheless, 3D films were prominently featured in the 1950s in American cinema, and later experienced a worldwide resurgence in the 1980s and 1990s driven by IMAX high-end theaters and Disney-themed venues. 3D films became increasingly successful throughout the 2000s, peaking with the success of 3D presentations of Avatar in December 2009, after which 3D films again decreased in popularity. Certain directors have also taken more experimental approaches to 3D filmmaking, most notably celebrated auteur Jean-Luc Godard in his film Goodbye to Language.

Group stage

Result of teams participating in UEFA Euro 2020      Winner   Runner-up    Semi-finals   Quarter-finals    Round of 16  Group stage
Result of teams participating in UEFA Euro 2020

UEFA announced the original tournament schedule on 24 May 2018, which only included kick-off times for the opening match and quarter-finals onward.[147][148] The kick-off times of the remaining group stage and round of 16 matches were announced on 30 November 2019 following the final draw.[149] On 17 June 2020, UEFA announced the revised match schedule for the tournament in 2021.[150][151] All match dates, kick-off times and venues remained identical, but shifted one day earlier so matches would remain on the same day of the week (i.e. from 12 to 11 June for the opening match to remain on a Friday). On 23 April 2021, UEFA revised the venue assignments of the match schedule after one stadium was removed from the tournament and another was replaced.[152]

Group winners, runners-up, and the best four third-placed teams advanced to the round of 16.

Times are CEST (UTC+2), as listed by UEFA. If the venue was located in a different time zone, the local time is also given.

Tiebreakers

If two or more teams were equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following tie-breaking criteria were applied:[1]

  1. Higher number of points obtained in the matches played between the teams in question;
  2. Superior goal difference resulting from the matches played between the teams in question;
  3. Higher number of goals scored in the matches played between the teams in question;
  4. If, after having applied criteria 1 to 3, teams still had an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 3 were reapplied exclusively to the matches between the teams who were still level to determine their final rankings.[a] If this procedure did not lead to a decision, criteria 5 to 10 applied;
  5. Superior goal difference in all group matches;
  6. Higher number of goals scored in all group matches;
  7. Higher number of wins in all group matches;[b]
  8. If on the last round of the group stage, two teams were facing each other and each had the same number of points, as well as the same number of goals scored and conceded, and the score finished level in their match, their ranking was determined by a penalty shoot-out. (This criterion was not used if more than two teams had the same number of points.);
  9. Lower disciplinary points total in all group matches (1 point for a single yellow card, 3 points for a red card as a consequence of two yellow cards, 3 points for a direct red card, 4 points for a yellow card followed by a direct red card);
  10. Higher position in the European Qualifiers overall ranking.

Notes

  1. ^ If there was a three-way tie on points, the application of the first three criteria could only break the tie for one of the teams, leaving the other two teams still tied. In this case, the tiebreaking procedure was resumed, from the beginning, for the two teams that were still tied.
  2. ^ This criterion could only break a tie if a point deduction were to occur, as multiple teams in the same group could not otherwise be tied on points but have a different number of wins.

Group A

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Italy (H) 3 3 0 0 7 0 +7 9 Advance to knockout phase
2  Wales 3 1 1 1 3 2 +1 4[a]
3  Switzerland 3 1 1 1 4 5 −1 4[a]
4  Turkey 3 0 0 3 1 8 −7 0
Source: UEFA
(H) Host
Notes:
  1. ^ a b Tied on head-to-head result (Wales 1–1 Switzerland). Overall goal difference was used as the tiebreaker.
Turkey 0–3 Italy
Report
Wales 1–1 Switzerland
Report
Attendance: 8,782[154]

Turkey 0–2 Wales
Report
Italy 3–0 Switzerland
Report
Attendance: 12,445[156]

Switzerland 3–1 Turkey
Report
Attendance: 17,138[157]
Italy 1–0 Wales
Report
Attendance: 11,541[158]

Group B

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Belgium 3 3 0 0 7 1 +6 9 Advance to knockout phase
2  Denmark (H) 3 1 0 2 5 4 +1 3[a]
3  Finland 3 1 0 2 1 3 −2 3[a]
4  Russia (H) 3 1 0 2 2 7 −5 3[a]
Source: UEFA
(H) Host
Notes:
  1. ^ a b c Tied on head-to-head points (3). Head-to-head goal difference: Denmark +2, Finland 0, Russia −2.
Denmark 0–1 Finland
Report
Belgium 3–0 Russia
Report

Finland 0–1 Russia
Report
Denmark 1–2 Belgium
Report

Russia 1–4 Denmark
Report
Finland 0–2 Belgium
Report

Group C

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Netherlands (H) 3 3 0 0 8 2 +6 9 Advance to knockout phase
2  Austria 3 2 0 1 4 3 +1 6
3  Ukraine 3 1 0 2 4 5 −1 3
4  North Macedonia 3 0 0 3 2 8 −6 0
Source: UEFA
(H) Host
Austria 3–1 North Macedonia
Report
Netherlands 3–2 Ukraine
Report

Ukraine 2–1 North Macedonia
Report
Netherlands 2–0 Austria
Report

North Macedonia 0–3 Netherlands
Report
Ukraine 0–1 Austria
Report

Group D

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  England (H) 3 2 1 0 2 0 +2 7 Advance to knockout phase
2  Croatia 3 1 1 1 4 3 +1 4[a]
3  Czech Republic 3 1 1 1 3 2 +1 4[a]
4  Scotland (H) 3 0 1 2 1 5 −4 1
Source: UEFA
(H) Host
Notes:
  1. ^ a b Tied on head-to-head result (Croatia 1–1 Czech Republic) and overall goal difference (+1). Overall goals for was used as the tiebreaker.
England 1–0 Croatia
Report
Attendance: 18,497[171]
Scotland 0–2 Czech Republic
Report
Attendance: 9,847[172]

Croatia 1–1 Czech Republic
Report
England 0–0 Scotland
Report

Croatia 3–1 Scotland
Report
Czech Republic 0–1 England
Report

Group E

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Sweden 3 2 1 0 4 2 +2 7 Advance to knockout phase
2  Spain (H) 3 1 2 0 6 1 +5 5
3  Slovakia 3 1 0 2 2 7 −5 3
4  Poland 3 0 1 2 4 6 −2 1
Source: UEFA
(H) Host
Poland 1–2 Slovakia
Report
Spain 0–0 Sweden
Report
Attendance: 10,559[178]

Sweden 1–0 Slovakia
Report
Spain 1–1 Poland
Report
Attendance: 11,742[180]

Slovakia 0–5 Spain
Report
Attendance: 11,204[181]
Sweden 3–2 Poland
Report

Group F

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  France 3 1 2 0 4 3 +1 5 Advance to knockout phase
2  Germany (H) 3 1 1 1 6 5 +1 4[a]
3  Portugal 3 1 1 1 7 6 +1 4[a]
4  Hungary (H) 3 0 2 1 3 6 −3 2
Source: UEFA
(H) Host
Notes:
  1. ^ a b Head-to-head result: Portugal 2–4 Germany.
Hungary 0–3 Portugal
Report
Attendance: 55,662[183]
France 1–0 Germany
Report

Hungary 1–1 France
Report
Attendance: 55,998[185]
Portugal 2–4 Germany
Report
Attendance: 12,926[186]

Portugal 2–2 France
Report
Germany 2–2 Hungary
Report
Attendance: 12,413[188]

Ranking of third-placed teams

Pos Grp Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1 F  Portugal 3 1 1 1 7 6 +1 4 Advance to knockout phase
2 D  Czech Republic 3 1 1 1 3 2 +1 4
3 A  Switzerland 3 1 1 1 4 5 −1 4
4 C  Ukraine 3 1 0 2 4 5 −1 3
5 B  Finland 3 1 0 2 1 3 −2 3
6 E  Slovakia 3 1 0 2 2 7 −5 3
Source: UEFA
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored; 4) Wins; 5) Lower disciplinary points total; 6) European Qualifiers overall ranking.

Discover more about Group stage related topics

Central European Summer Time

Central European Summer Time

Central European Summer Time (CEST), sometimes referred to as Central European Daylight Time (CEDT), is the standard clock time observed during the period of summer daylight-saving in those European countries which observe Central European Time during the other part of the year. It corresponds to UTC+02:00, which makes it the same as Eastern European Time, Central Africa Time, South African Standard Time, Egypt Standard Time and Kaliningrad Time in Russia.

Penalty shoot-out (association football)

Penalty shoot-out (association football)

A penalty shoot-out is a tie-breaking method in association football to determine which team is awarded victory in a match that cannot end in a draw, when the score is tied after the normal time as well as extra time have expired. In a penalty shoot-out, each team takes turns shooting at goal from the penalty mark, with the goal defended only by the opposing team's goalkeeper. Each team has five shots which must be taken by different kickers; the team that makes more successful kicks is declared the victor. Shoot-outs finish as soon as one team has an insurmountable lead. If scores are level after five pairs of shots, the shootout progresses into additional "sudden-death" rounds. Balls successfully kicked into the goal during a shoot-out do not count as goals for the individual kickers or the team, and are tallied separately from the goals scored during normal play. Although the procedure for each individual kick in the shoot-out resembles that of a penalty kick, there are some differences. Most notably, neither the kicker nor any player other than the goalkeeper may play the ball again once it has been kicked.

UEFA Euro 2020 Group A

UEFA Euro 2020 Group A

Group A of UEFA Euro 2020 took place from 11 to 20 June 2021 in Baku's Olympic Stadium and Rome's Stadio Olimpico. The group contained Turkey, host nation and eventual champions Italy, Wales and Switzerland.

Italy national football team

Italy national football team

The Italy national football team has represented Italy in international football since its first match in 1910. The national team is controlled by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), the governing body for football in Italy, which is a co-founder and member of UEFA. Italy's home matches are played at various stadiums throughout Italy, and its primary training ground and technical headquarters, Centro Tecnico Federale di Coverciano, is located in Florence. Italy are the reigning European champions, having won UEFA Euro 2020.

Switzerland national football team

Switzerland national football team

The Switzerland national football team represents Switzerland in international football. The national team is controlled by the Swiss Football Association.

Turkey national football team

Turkey national football team

The Türkiye national football team represents Turkey in men's international football matches. The team is controlled by the Turkish Football Federation, the governing body for football in Turkey, which was founded in 1923 and has been a member of FIFA since 1923 and UEFA since 1962. It has been recognized as Türkiye by the FIFA and UEFA since 2022.

Merih Demiral

Merih Demiral

Merih Demiral is a Turkish professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Serie A club Atalanta and the Turkey national team.

Ciro Immobile

Ciro Immobile

Ciro Immobile is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a forward for Serie A club Lazio, which he captains, and the Italy national team.

Lorenzo Insigne

Lorenzo Insigne

Lorenzo Insigne is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a winger for Major League Soccer club Toronto FC and the Italy national team.

Stadio Olimpico

Stadio Olimpico

The Stadio Olimpico is the largest sports facility in Rome, Italy, seating over 70,000 spectators. It is located within the Foro Italico sports complex, north of the city. The structure is owned by the Italian National Olympic Committee and it is used primarily for association football. The Stadio Olimpico is the home stadium of the Roma and Lazio football clubs, and also hosts the Coppa Italia final. The Italian Rugby Union team also use the stadium for their home matches. It was rebuilt for the 1990 FIFA World Cup and it hosted the tournament final.

Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy. It is also the capital of the Lazio region, the centre of the Metropolitan City of Rome, and a special comune named Comune di Roma Capitale. With 2,860,009 residents in 1,285 km2 (496.1 sq mi), Rome is the country's most populated comune and the third most populous city in the European Union by population within city limits. The Metropolitan City of Rome, with a population of 4,355,725 residents, is the most populous metropolitan city in Italy. Its metropolitan area is the third-most populous within Italy. Rome is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, within Lazio (Latium), along the shores of the Tiber. Vatican City is an independent country inside the city boundaries of Rome, the only existing example of a country within a city. Rome is often referred to as the City of Seven Hills due to its geographic location, and also as the "Eternal City". Rome is generally considered to be the "cradle of Western civilization and Christian culture", and the centre of the Catholic Church.

Danny Makkelie

Danny Makkelie

Danny Desmond Makkelie is a Dutch professional football referee. Besides refereeing he works as a police inspector in Rotterdam and as a referee coach for the Royal Dutch Football Association. He has been a FIFA listed referee since 2011.

Knockout phase

Italy celebrates its second European title
Italy celebrates its second European title

In the knockout phase, if a match was level at the end of normal playing time, extra time was played (two periods of 15 minutes each), with each team being allowed to make a sixth substitution.[7] If still tied after extra time, the match was decided by a penalty shoot-out.[1]

As with every tournament since UEFA Euro 1984, there was no third place play-off.

Times is CEST (UTC+2), as listed by UEFA. If the venue was located in a different time zone, the local time is also given.

Bracket

 
Round of 16Quarter-finalsSemi-finalsFinal
 
              
 
27 June 2021 – Seville
 
 
 Belgium1
 
2 July 2021 – Munich
 
 Portugal0
 
 Belgium1
 
26 June 2021 – London
 
 Italy2
 
 Italy (a.e.t.)2
 
6 July 2021 – London
 
 Austria1
 
 Italy (p)1 (4)
 
28 June 2021 – Bucharest
 
 Spain1 (2)
 
 France3 (4)
 
2 July 2021 – Saint Petersburg
 
 Switzerland (p)3 (5)
 
 Switzerland1 (1)
 
28 June 2021 – Copenhagen
 
 Spain (p)1 (3)
 
 Croatia3
 
11 July 2021 – London
 
 Spain (a.e.t.)5
 
 Italy (p)1 (3)
 
29 June 2021 – Glasgow
 
 England1 (2)
 
 Sweden1
 
3 July 2021 – Rome
 
 Ukraine (a.e.t.)2
 
 Ukraine0
 
29 June 2021 – London
 
 England4
 
 England2
 
7 July 2021 – London
 
 Germany0
 
 England (a.e.t.)2
 
27 June 2021 – Budapest
 
 Denmark1
 
 Netherlands0
 
3 July 2021 – Baku
 
 Czech Republic2
 
 Czech Republic1
 
26 June 2021 – Amsterdam
 
 Denmark2
 
 Wales0
 
 
 Denmark4
 

Round of 16

Wales 0–4 Denmark
Report

Italy 2–1 (a.e.t.) Austria
Report
Attendance: 18,910[190]

Netherlands 0–2 Czech Republic
Report
Attendance: 52,834[191]

Belgium 1–0 Portugal
Report
Attendance: 11,504[192]
Referee: Felix Brych (Germany)

Croatia 3–5 (a.e.t.) Spain
Report


England 2–0 Germany
Report

Sweden 1–2 (a.e.t.) Ukraine
Report
Attendance: 9,221[196]

Quarter-finals


Belgium 1–2 Italy
Report
Attendance: 12,984[198]

Czech Republic 1–2 Denmark
Report

Ukraine 0–4 England
Report
Attendance: 11,880[200]
Referee: Felix Brych (Germany)

Semi-finals

Italy 1–1 (a.e.t.) Spain
Report
Penalties
4–2
Attendance: 57,811[201]
Referee: Felix Brych (Germany)

England 2–1 (a.e.t.) Denmark
Report

Final

Italy 1–1 (a.e.t.) England
Report
Penalties
3–2
Attendance: 67,173[203]

Discover more about Knockout phase related topics

Substitute (association football)

Substitute (association football)

In association football, a substitute is a player who is brought on to the pitch during a match in exchange for an existing player. Substitutions are generally made to replace a player who has become tired or injured, or who is performing poorly, or for tactical reasons. A player who has been substituted during a match takes no further part in the game, in games played under the standard International Football Association Board Laws of the Game.

Penalty shoot-out (association football)

Penalty shoot-out (association football)

A penalty shoot-out is a tie-breaking method in association football to determine which team is awarded victory in a match that cannot end in a draw, when the score is tied after the normal time as well as extra time have expired. In a penalty shoot-out, each team takes turns shooting at goal from the penalty mark, with the goal defended only by the opposing team's goalkeeper. Each team has five shots which must be taken by different kickers; the team that makes more successful kicks is declared the victor. Shoot-outs finish as soon as one team has an insurmountable lead. If scores are level after five pairs of shots, the shootout progresses into additional "sudden-death" rounds. Balls successfully kicked into the goal during a shoot-out do not count as goals for the individual kickers or the team, and are tallied separately from the goals scored during normal play. Although the procedure for each individual kick in the shoot-out resembles that of a penalty kick, there are some differences. Most notably, neither the kicker nor any player other than the goalkeeper may play the ball again once it has been kicked.

UEFA Euro 1984

UEFA Euro 1984

The 1984 UEFA European Football Championship final tournament was held in France from 12 to 27 June 1984. It was the seventh UEFA European Championship, a competition held every four years and endorsed by UEFA.

Central European Summer Time

Central European Summer Time

Central European Summer Time (CEST), sometimes referred to as Central European Daylight Time (CEDT), is the standard clock time observed during the period of summer daylight-saving in those European countries which observe Central European Time during the other part of the year. It corresponds to UTC+02:00, which makes it the same as Eastern European Time, Central Africa Time, South African Standard Time, Egypt Standard Time and Kaliningrad Time in Russia.

UTC+02:00

UTC+02:00

UTC+02:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +02:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2020-11-08T23:41:45+02:00. This time is used in:

Estadio de La Cartuja

Estadio de La Cartuja

Estadio La Cartuja, formerly Estadio Olímpico de Sevilla, officially known as Estadio La Cartuja de Sevilla, is a multi-purpose stadium situated in the Isla de la Cartuja in Seville, Spain. It is used mostly for football and it is commonly referred to as simply 'La Cartuja'. It was completed in 1999 for the World Championships in Athletics. With a capacity of 57,619 seats, La Cartuja is the 5th-largest stadium in Spain and the 2nd-largest in Andalusia. It was the venue for the 2003 UEFA Cup Final between Celtic and Porto.

Belgium national football team

Belgium national football team

The Belgium national football team officially represents Belgium in men's international football since their maiden match in 1904. The squad is under the global jurisdiction of FIFA and is governed in Europe by UEFA—both of which were co-founded by the Belgian team's supervising body, the Royal Belgian Football Association. Periods of regular Belgian representation at the highest international level, from 1920 to 1938, from 1982 to 2002 and again from 2014 onwards, have alternated with mostly unsuccessful qualification rounds. Most of Belgium's home matches are played at the King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels.

Allianz Arena

Allianz Arena

Allianz Arena is a football stadium in Munich, Bavaria, Germany with a 70,000 seating capacity for international matches and 75,000 for domestic matches. Widely known for its exterior of inflated ETFE plastic panels, it is the first stadium in the world with a full colour changing exterior. Located at 25 Werner-Heisenberg-Allee at the northern edge of Munich's Schwabing-Freimann borough on the Fröttmaning Heath, it is the second-largest arena in Germany behind Westfalenstadion in Dortmund.

Portugal national football team

Portugal national football team

The Portugal national football team has represented Portugal in international men's football competition since 1921. The national team is controlled by the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF), the governing body for football in Portugal. Portugal's home matches are played at various stadiums throughout Portugal, and its primary training ground and technical headquarters, Cidade do Futebol, is located in Oeiras. The head coach of the team is Roberto Martínez, who replaced Fernando Santos in January 2023 following his stepping down after the 2022 World Cup, and the captain is Cristiano Ronaldo, who also holds the team records for most caps and most goals.

Wembley Stadium

Wembley Stadium

Wembley Stadium is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 2002 to 2003. The stadium hosts major football matches including home matches of the England national football team, and the FA Cup Final. Wembley Stadium is owned by the governing body of English football, the Football Association, whose headquarters are in the stadium, through its subsidiary Wembley National Stadium Ltd (WNSL). With 90,000 seats, it is the largest stadium in the UK and the second-largest stadium in Europe.

Italy national football team

Italy national football team

The Italy national football team has represented Italy in international football since its first match in 1910. The national team is controlled by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), the governing body for football in Italy, which is a co-founder and member of UEFA. Italy's home matches are played at various stadiums throughout Italy, and its primary training ground and technical headquarters, Centro Tecnico Federale di Coverciano, is located in Florence. Italy are the reigning European champions, having won UEFA Euro 2020.

Austria national football team

Austria national football team

The Austria national football team represents Austria in men's international football competition and it is controlled by the Austrian Football Association.

Statistics

Goalscorers

There were 142 goals scored in 51 matches, for an average of 2.78 goals per match.

The tournament had the highest goal average since UEFA Euro 1976, prior to the introduction of the group stage.[205] Eleven own goals were scored in the tournament, two more than at all the previous tournaments combined.[206] With his goals in this tournament, Cristiano Ronaldo became the top goalscorer at the European Championship with 14 goals.[207]

5 goals

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

Source: UEFA[204]

Awards

UEFA Team of the Tournament

UEFA's technical observer team was given the objective of naming a team of the best eleven players from the tournament. Five players from the winning Italian squad were named in the team.[209]

Goalkeeper Defenders Midfielders Forwards
Italy Gianluigi Donnarumma England Kyle Walker
England Harry Maguire
Italy Leonardo Bonucci
Italy Leonardo Spinazzola
Denmark Pierre-Emile Højbjerg
Italy Jorginho
Spain Pedri
England Raheem Sterling
Belgium Romelu Lukaku
Italy Federico Chiesa

Player of the Tournament

The Player of the Tournament award was given to Gianluigi Donnarumma, the first goalkeeper to win the award, who was chosen by UEFA's technical observers.[210]

Young Player of the Tournament

The Young Player of the Tournament award, open to players born on or after 1 January 1998, was given to Pedri, as chosen by UEFA's technical observers.[211]

  • Spain Pedri (2002-11-25)25 November 2002 (aged 18)

Top Scorer

The "Alipay Top Scorer" award, given to the top scorer of the tournament, was awarded to Cristiano Ronaldo, who scored five goals and recorded one assist.[212] The ranking was determined using the following criteria: goals, assists, fewest minutes played and goals in qualifying.[213]

Top scorer rankings
Rank Player Goals Assists Minutes
1st place, gold medalist(s) Portugal Cristiano Ronaldo 5 1 360
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Czech Republic Patrik Schick 5 0 404
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) France Karim Benzema 4 0 349

Goal of the Tournament

The Goal of the Tournament was decided by online voting. A total 10 goals were in the shortlist. On 14 July 2021, after an open vote with over 800,000 entries, UEFA announced that Czech forward Patrik Schick's second goal against Scotland had been named the goal of the tournament.[214]

Prize money

The prize money was finalised in February 2018. Each team received a participation fee of €9.25 million, with the winner able to earn a maximum of €34 million.[215]

Prize money
Rank (unoff.) Team € million
1  Italy 34
2  England 30.25
3  Spain 22.5
4  Denmark 21
5  Belgium 19
6  Czech Republic
 Switzerland
16.75
8  Ukraine 16
9  Netherlands 15.75
10  Sweden 15
11  Austria
 France
14.25
13  Portugal
 Croatia
 Germany
 Wales
13.5
17  Finland
 Slovakia
 Russia
 Hungary
10.75
21  Poland
 Scotland
10
23  Turkey
 North Macedonia
9.25
Round achieved Amount Number of teams
Final tournament €9.25m 24
Group stage €1.5m for a win
€750,000 for a draw
24
Round of 16 €2m 16
Quarter-finals €3.25m 8
Semi-finals €5m 4
Runner-up €7m 1
Winner €10m 1

Discipline

A player was automatically suspended for the next match for the following offences:[1]

  • Receiving a red card (red card suspensions could be extended for serious offences)
  • Receiving two yellow cards in two different matches; yellow cards expired after the completion of the quarter-finals (yellow card suspensions were not carried forward to any other future international matches)

Discover more about Statistics related topics

List of UEFA European Championship own goals

List of UEFA European Championship own goals

This is a list of all own goals scored during UEFA European Championship matches, which does not include qualifying matches.

Cristiano Ronaldo

Cristiano Ronaldo

Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a forward for and captains both Saudi Professional League club Al Nassr and the Portugal national team. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, Ronaldo has won five Ballon d'Or awards and four European Golden Shoes, the most by a European player. He has won 32 trophies in his career, including seven league titles, five UEFA Champions Leagues, the UEFA European Championship and the UEFA Nations League. Ronaldo holds the records for most appearances (183), goals (140), and assists (42) in the Champions League, goals in the European Championship (14), men's international goals (122), and men's international appearances (198). He is one of the few players to have made over 1,100 professional career appearances, and has scored over 800 official senior career goals for club and country.

Czech Republic national football team

Czech Republic national football team

The Czech Republic national football team, recognised by FIFA as Czechia, represents the Czech Republic in international football. The team is controlled by the Football Association of the Czech Republic (FAČR). Historically, the team participated in FIFA and UEFA competitions as Bohemia and Czechoslovakia.

Patrik Schick

Patrik Schick

Patrik Schick is a Czech professional footballer who plays as a forward for Bundesliga club Bayer Leverkusen and the Czech Republic national team.

Belgium national football team

Belgium national football team

The Belgium national football team officially represents Belgium in men's international football since their maiden match in 1904. The squad is under the global jurisdiction of FIFA and is governed in Europe by UEFA—both of which were co-founded by the Belgian team's supervising body, the Royal Belgian Football Association. Periods of regular Belgian representation at the highest international level, from 1920 to 1938, from 1982 to 2002 and again from 2014 onwards, have alternated with mostly unsuccessful qualification rounds. Most of Belgium's home matches are played at the King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels.

England national football team

England national football team

The England national football team has represented England in international football since the first international match in 1872. It is controlled by The Football Association (FA), the governing body for football in England, which is affiliated with UEFA and comes under the global jurisdiction of world football's governing body FIFA. England competes in the three major international tournament contested by European nations: the FIFA World Cup, the UEFA European Championship, and the UEFA Nations League.

Harry Kane

Harry Kane

Harry Edward Kane is an English professional footballer who plays as a striker for Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur and captains the England national team. A prolific goalscorer with strong link play, Kane is regarded as one of the best strikers in the world. He is both Tottenham Hotspur's and England's all-time highest goalscorer, as well as being the third-highest Premier League all-time goalscorer.

France national football team

France national football team

The France national football team represents France in men's international football matches. It is governed by the French Football Federation, the governing body for football in France. It is a member of UEFA in Europe and FIFA in global competitions. The team's colors and imagery reference two national symbols: the French red-white-blue tricolour and Gallic rooster. The team is colloquially known as Les Bleus. They play home matches at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis and train at INF Clairefontaine in Clairefontaine-en-Yvelines.

Karim Benzema

Karim Benzema

Karim Mostafa Benzema is a French professional footballer who plays as a striker for and captains La Liga club Real Madrid. A creative and prolific forward, Benzema is regarded as one of the best strikers of all time. He is Real Madrid's all-time second-highest goalscorer and top assist provider. Benzema has won 24 trophies with Real Madrid, including four La Liga, two Copa del Rey and five UEFA Champions League titles.

Emil Forsberg

Emil Forsberg

Emil Peter Forsberg is a Swedish professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for Bundesliga club RB Leipzig and the Sweden national team.

Denmark national football team

Denmark national football team

The Denmark men’s national football team represents Denmark and Greenland in men's international football competitions. It is controlled by the Danish Football Association (DBU), the governing body for the football clubs which are organised under DBU. Denmark's home stadium is Parken Stadium in the Østerbro district of Copenhagen; their head coach is Kasper Hjulmand.

Kasper Dolberg

Kasper Dolberg

Kasper Dolberg Rasmussen is a Danish professional footballer who plays as a forward for Bundesliga club 1899 Hoffenheim, on loan from Nice. He also represents the Denmark national team.

Marketing

Logo and slogan

The official logo was unveiled on 21 September 2016, during a ceremony at the City Hall in London. The logo depicted the Henri Delaunay Trophy surrounded by celebrating fans on a bridge, which, according to UEFA, represented how football connects and unifies people.[216][217]

Each individual host city also had their own unique logo. The rectangular logos featured the text UEFA EURO 2020 on the top, the city name above the text host city on the bottom (all in uppercase), the main tournament logo on the left and a local bridge on the right. Each logo existed in English, along with variations in the local language when applicable. The logos were unveiled from September 2016 to January 2017.

Logos of host cities
Host city Date announced Bridge Other language Ref.
London 21 September 2016[a] Tower Bridge [217]
Rome 22 September 2016 Ponte Sant'Angelo Italian [218]
Baku 30 September 2016 Baku cable-stayed bridge Azerbaijani [219]
Bucharest 15 October 2016 Basarab Overpass Romanian [220]
Glasgow 25 October 2016 Clyde Arc [221]
Munich 27 October 2016 Wittelsbacherbrücke German [222]
Copenhagen 1 November 2016 Circle Bridge Danish [223]
Budapest 16 November 2016 Széchenyi Chain Bridge Hungarian [224]
Amsterdam 16 December 2016 Magere Brug Dutch [225]
Saint Petersburg 19 January 2017 Palace Bridge Russian [226]
Seville Alamillo Bridge Spanish [227]
  1. ^ As part of the main logo launch event.
Logos of removed host cities
Host city Date announced Bridge Other language(s) Ref.
Dublin 24 November 2016 Samuel Beckett Bridge Irish [228]
Brussels 14 December 2016 Pont Sobieski [fr] Dutch, French [229]
Bilbao 15 December 2016 San Antón Bridge Spanish [230]

The official slogan of the tournament was "Live It. For Real." The slogan was meant to encourage fans to see the matches live in the stadiums across Europe.[231]

Match ball

Official match ball "Uniforia"
Official match ball "Uniforia"

On 6 November 2019, UEFA announced that the "Uniforia" by Adidas would be the tournament's official match ball. Predominantly white, the ball featured black strokes with blue, neon and pink stripes, and had coordinates of twelve cities which hosted the finals (including Dublin and Bilbao, which were later removed as the host cities). The name was derived from a portmanteau of "unity" and "euphoria".[232]

A special variation named "Uniforia Finale" was launched on 5 July 2021, to be used in both semi-finals and the final match. The ball had a silver base, a different colour arrangement, and Wembley Stadium's coordinates (51° 33' 21,5" N, 0° 16' 46,4" W) written on the ball.

Mascot

Adidas Uniforia Finale, which was used in the semifinals and final match
Adidas Uniforia Finale, which was used in the semifinals and final match

The official mascot of the tournament, Skillzy, was unveiled on 24 March 2019. The character was inspired by freestyle football, street football, and panna culture.[233]

Official song

On 19 October 2019, Dutch DJ and music producer Martin Garrix was announced as the official music artist of the tournament.[234] He produced the official song of the tournament, as well as the walkout music preceding matches and the television broadcast music.[235] The official song, "We Are the People", featured Bono and the Edge from Irish rock band U2 and was released on 14 May 2021.[236][237] It was first performed in full at a virtual opening ceremony at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome.

Video game

The game was released by Konami as a free DLC on eFootball PES 2020 in June 2020, and on the eFootball PES 2021 Season Update on launch day. It included the official kits and player likenesses for all 55 officially licensed UEFA teams. The update also included five out of eleven venues of the tournament, as well as the official match ball.[238][239]

Sponsorship

UEFA had the following sponsorship partners:[240]

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London

London

London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a 50-mile (80 km) estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major settlement for two millennia. The City of London, its ancient core and financial centre, was founded by the Romans as Londinium and retains its medieval boundaries. The City of Westminster, to the west of the City of London, has for centuries hosted the national government and parliament. Since the 19th century, the name "London" has also referred to the metropolis around this core, historically split between the counties of Middlesex, Essex, Surrey, Kent, and Hertfordshire, which since 1965 has largely comprised Greater London, which is governed by 33 local authorities and the Greater London Authority.

Ponte Sant'Angelo

Ponte Sant'Angelo

Ponte Sant'Angelo, originally the Aelian Bridge or Pons Aelius, is a Roman bridge in Rome, Italy, completed in 134 AD by Roman Emperor Hadrian, to span the Tiber from the city centre to his newly constructed mausoleum, now the towering Castel Sant'Angelo. The bridge is faced with travertine marble and spans the Tiber with five arches, three of which are Roman; it was approached by means of a ramp from the river. The bridge is now solely pedestrian and provides a scenic view of Castel Sant'Angelo. It links the rioni of Ponte, and Borgo, to whom the bridge administratively belongs.

Baku

Baku

Baku is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is 28 metres (92 ft) below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world and also the largest city in the world below sea level. Baku lies on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, on the Bay of Baku. Baku's urban population was estimated at two million people as of 2009. Baku is the primate city of Azerbaijan—it is the sole metropolis in the country, and about 25% of all inhabitants of the country live in Baku's metropolitan area.

Bucharest

Bucharest

Bucharest is the capital and largest city of Romania. It is described as the cultural, financial, entertainment, and media center in the country with a significant influence in Eastern and Southeastern Europe as well. It is also a city with a significant influence in terms of education, tourism, research, technology, health care, art, fashion, sports, and politics. It is located in the south-east of Romania, on the banks of the Dâmbovița river, less than 60 km (37.3 mi) north of the Danube River and the border with Bulgaria. It is also one of the most populated cities of the European Union (EU) within city limits and the most populated capital in Southeastern Europe. It was the capital of Wallachia from 1659 to 1859 and the capital of the United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia from 1859 to 1881.

Basarab Overpass

Basarab Overpass

The Basarab Overpass is a road overpass in Bucharest, Romania, connecting Nicolae Titulescu blvd. and Grozǎveşti Road, part of Bucharest's inner city ring. A design by engineer Javier Manterola, its construction was undertaken by FCC and Astaldi.

Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated population of 635,640. The city was made a county of itself in 1893, prior to which it had been in the historic county of Lanarkshire. The city now forms the Glasgow City Council area, one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, and is governed by Glasgow City Council. It is situated on the River Clyde in the country's West Central Lowlands.

Clyde Arc

Clyde Arc

The Clyde Arc is a road bridge spanning the River Clyde in Glasgow, Scotland, connecting Finnieston near the Clyde Auditorium and SEC with Pacific Quay and Glasgow Science Centre in Govan. A prominent feature of the bridge is its innovative curved design and the way that it crosses the river at an angle. The Arc is the first city centre traffic crossing over the river built since the Kingston Bridge was opened to traffic in 1970.

Munich

Munich

Munich is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Hamburg, and thus the largest which does not constitute its own state, as well as the 11th-largest city in the European Union. The city's metropolitan region is home to 6 million people. Straddling the banks of the River Isar north of the Bavarian Alps, Munich is the seat of the Bavarian administrative region of Upper Bavaria, while being the most densely populated municipality in Germany with 4,500 people per km2. Munich is the second-largest city in the Bavarian dialect area, after the Austrian capital of Vienna.

Copenhagen

Copenhagen

Copenhagen is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of around 1.4 million in the urban area, and more than 2 million in the wider Copenhagen metropolitan area. The city is on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the Øresund strait. The Øresund Bridge connects the two cities by rail and road.

Circle Bridge

Circle Bridge

The Circle Bridge is a bicycle and pedestrian bridge spanning the southern mouth of Christianshavn Canal in the Christianshavn area of central Copenhagen, Denmark. It connects Applebys Plads to the south with Christiansbro to the north. The bridge was designed by Olafur Eliasson.

Budapest

Budapest

Budapest is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population of 1,752,286 over a land area of about 525 square kilometres. Budapest, which is both a city and county, forms the centre of the Budapest metropolitan area, which has an area of 7,626 square kilometres and a population of 3,303,786; it is a primate city, constituting 33% of the population of Hungary.

Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 921,402 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the urban area and 2,480,394 in the metropolitan area. Located in the Dutch province of North Holland, Amsterdam is colloquially referred to as the "Venice of the North", for its large number of canals, now designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Broadcasting

The International Broadcast Centre (IBC) was located at the Expo Haarlemmermeer in Vijfhuizen, Netherlands.[253]

Incidents and controversies

Ukraine kit

The team of Ukraine presented its shirt for the championship, decorated with a map of national borders, including Crimea. The peninsula was annexed by the Russian Federation in 2014 but is still considered part of its territory by Ukraine and the United Nations. The shirt carried the slogan "Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes!" Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that it was a Ukrainian nationalist slogan that imitated a Nazi one. Russian Deputy Dmitry Svishchev called UEFA to intervene because the shirt was "totally inappropriate".[254] UEFA said there was no dispute for the map of Ukraine, as it reflected the borders recognized by the United Nations, while it ordered the removal of the phrase, as "specific combination of the two slogans is deemed to be clearly political in nature, having historic and militaristic significance."[255]

Collapse of Christian Eriksen

The Denmark vs Finland match in Group B was suspended minutes prior to half-time after Danish midfielder Christian Eriksen collapsed on the pitch after suffering a sudden cardiac arrest. He was given immidate cardiopulmonary resuscitation, then transferred to Rigshospitalet and stabilised, with the match resuming by the decision of the Danish team later that evening.[256][257][258]

Following the match, the Danish team stated that it was unfair they had to decide to continue playing the match.[259] Former Danish international Peter Schmeichel said that the Danish team had been given the options to finish the game that same day, finish the game the next day at 12 pm, or forfeit the game and lose 3–0. UEFA denied that either team had been threatened with a forfeit.[260]

British broadcaster BBC received over 6,000 complaints over the UEFA video-feed broadcasting live images of Eriksen receiving CPR on the pitch.[261][262] Eriksen was later fitted with an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, and returned to playing with Brentford eight months later.[263]

Marko Arnautović insult

In the Austria vs North Macedonia match on 13 June 2021, Austrian player Marko Arnautović insulted Macedonian player Ezgjan Alioski and his family after his goal to make it 3–1. Arnautović is of Serbian descent, and Alioski is of Albanian descent; both countries have been in conflict over Kosovo for decades. The Football Federation of North Macedonia lodged a complaint with UEFA after the game, demanding a clear penalty. The UEFA Control Committee then opened an investigation, Arnautović was banned from the next game by UEFA for "insulting another player", and was unable to play in Netherlands vs Austria, the group's second game.[264]

Removing marketing drink bottles

At a press conference before Hungary vs Portugal on 14 June 2021, Cristiano Ronaldo removed Coca-Cola bottles from the table and then held a water bottle in front of the camera to highlight that water, healthier than Coca-Cola or soda drink, is his ideal drink;[265][266] it was thought that Ronaldo's actions were behind the collapse of Coca-Cola market value, but it was later found it had nothing to do with it.[267][268] After France vs Germany, France's Paul Pogba, a practising Muslim,[269] moved bottles of non-alcoholic Heineken beer from the table at a press conference.[270] After these two actions, UEFA spoke with each team participating in the European Championship, in which it pointed out the importance of sponsors. UEFA also said that if it happened again, then punishments would be given out to those players.[271]

Greenpeace protest

In the run-up to the France vs Germany on 15 June 2021 in Munich, a man with a paramotor got stuck on a fixed rope during a flight over the Allianz Arena, fell into a descent, grazed the spectator stands, and landed on the pitch. In the action planned as a protest by Greenpeace against car manufacturer Volkswagen, in which only a large ball with a label was supposed to be thrown onto the field, two people in the stands suffered head injuries and had to receive medical care.[272] The campaign provoked strong criticism due to the endangerment of viewers; UEFA criticised it as a "reckless and dangerous action" that could have had serious consequences for many people.[273] The German Football Association (DFB), the Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder, and other politicians made similar statements, and Greenpeace apologised. A total flight ban was issued over the Allianz Arena for the duration of the European Championship. The Munich police are investigating the paramotor pilot for dangerous bodily harm, trespassing, and violation of the Aviation Act.[274][275]

Captain's rainbow armband

In connection with Pride Month, the German team used related symbolism. Team captain Manuel Neuer wore a captain's armband in rainbow colours in a friendly against Latvia on 7 June and continued to wear the armband in Germany's subsequent games. An investigation by UEFA followed during the group stage of the tournament. They assessed the armband as a "team symbol for diversity" and "a good cause." UEFA decided not to impose a penalty because of the rule broken by Neuer, which obliges team captains to wear UEFA captains' armbands.[276]

Illumination of the Allianz Arena in rainbow colours

Lighting of the Allianz Arena in rainbow colours (2016)
Lighting of the Allianz Arena in rainbow colours (2016)

Before the Germany vs Hungary group stage match on 23 June 2021, Munich City Council applied to UEFA to have the façade of the stadium illuminated in rainbow colours as a sign of diversity and tolerance. Since the project was understood as a protest against a law passed by the Hungarian Parliament that, according to its critics, restricts the "information rights" of young people with regard to homosexuality and gender transitioning,[277] UEFA rejected the application with reference to its status as a politically and religiously neutral organisation.[278] After initially approving the illumination of the stadium in rainbow colours, the German Football Association joined the UEFA position. The Mayor of Munich Dieter Reiter criticised these decisions and described the illumination not as a political measure but as what he called a sign of humanity and a symbol for the acceptance of equality between people.[279] In contrast, the Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs Péter Szijjártó welcomed UEFA's decision "not to be involved in a political provocation against Hungary."[280]

Numerous reactions from German political parties condemned the ban by UEFA. Nationwide, other football stadiums, such as those in Cologne, Augsburg, Frankfurt, Wolfsburg, Berlin, and Darmstadt, were to be illuminated in the rainbow colours. Munich illuminated the Town Hall, Olympiaturm, and the wind turbine right next to the football arena. In the Netherlands, the Erasmusbrug, Ziggo Dome, tower in Alphen aan den Rijn and several town halls were illuminated.[281][282] In protest against the UEFA ban, several large German corporations also changed their company logos on social media sites to rainbow colours. This included BMW, Volkswagen, Deutsche Telekom, Siemens, Sparkasse, and HypoVereinsbank.[283] CSD Germany announced that they would be distributing up to 11,000 flags, 5,000 cardboard boxes, and 4,500 stickers with the words "Don't Kick LGBTIQ Rights" to fans in front of the stadium. On 23 June, UEFA itself also changed their logo in social media to include a rainbow background, with a statement that "the rainbow is not a political symbol, but a sign of our firm commitment to a more diverse and inclusive society."[284] As a counter-action, Gábor Kubatov, president of the Hungarian club Ferencváros and vice-president of Fidesz, called for stadiums in Hungary to be illuminated in the Hungarian national colours. In addition, Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orbán cancelled a visit to Munich in protest.[285][286]

Confiscation of rainbow flag in Baku

On 3 July 2021, UEFA began an investigation after two fans had a rainbow flag confiscated during the quarter-final match between the Czech Republic and Denmark at the Baku Olympic Stadium in Azerbaijan.[287][288] Photos emerged while the match was being played, showing two stewards taking a rainbow flag, waved in support of the LGBTQ+ community, being taken.[289] In a statement, UEFA said: "UEFA never instructed stewards in Baku – or in any other stadium – to confiscate rainbow flags. We are currently investigating what happened and we will of course contact the UEFA delegate, UEFA security officer and local authorities to clear this up. The rainbow flag is a symbol that embodies UEFA core values, promoting everything that we believe in – a more just and egalitarian society, tolerant of everyone and UEFA has ensured that the flag was returned to the supporter."[290]

England vs Denmark incidents

In the 104th minute in the England vs Denmark semi-final match, on-field referee Danny Makkelie awarded a penalty kick to England after adjudging Danish defender Joakim Mæhle to have fouled English player Raheem Sterling in the penalty area. Danish goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel stopped Harry Kane's penalty kick, but Kane was able to score from the rebound. In a press conference shortly after the match, Danish coach Kasper Hjulmand expressed his dissatisfaction with the penalty decision,[291] as well as the fact that there were two balls on the pitch when the foul was given.[292] Non-English commentators such as Arsène Wenger, José Mourinho, and Dietmar Hamann criticised the penalty decision during and after the match, arguing that the penalty should not have been awarded when checked by VAR, while Roy Keane described it as "very, very soft".[293][294] Former England forward Alan Shearer also described the penalty decision as "soft", and said he would be "pretty angry if that penalty was given against England", while former England full-back Gary Neville said: "If we're being fair, you'd be absolutely devastated if you lost to a penalty like that." Match official and current ESPN rules analyst Mark Clattenburg, who refereed the UEFA Euro 2016 Final, said he would not have awarded a penalty kick for a tackle of this sort "in such a key moment."[295][296]

The Birmingham Mail claimed Denmark disrupted the English wall during a critical free kick that led to the opening goal of the match, and that Denmark's goal should have been disallowed as a result. According to the FIFA Laws of the Game, during a free kick, attackers must be within one metre from the defending team's wall, a rule that was violated by the Danish players who were accused of blocking goalkeeper Jordan Pickford's vision.[297]

On 8 July 2021, a day after the match, UEFA opened a disciplinary case against the English Football Association over a laser pointed at Danish goalkeeper Schmeichel just before the decisive penalty, booing when the Danish national anthem was played, and use of pyrotechnics.[298][299][300][301] The laser pointer first came to the notice of both the Football Association and UEFA in the first half of extra time but a search for the culprit was unsuccessful.[302] The Football Association were fined £25,630 (€30,000) for the three offences.[303][304][305]

Italy vs England incidents

Storming of Wembley stadium before final

On the day of the UEFA Euro 2020 Final between Italy and England, thousands of England fans gathered at Wembley Stadium throughout the morning and afternoon, which prompted the police to urge anyone without tickets to not travel there.[306] Two hours before the final, footage showed hundreds of fans fighting with stewards and police as they attempted to force their way past barriers to get into the stadium.[307][308] Around 400 people managed to gain access to the stadium, in block 104, without paying for a ticket.[309] Huge crowds gathered in Leicester Square throwing bottles and other objects, and Trafalgar Square, where a ticketed fan zone was set up.[310] As a result of the violence and disorder, a total of 86 people were arrested by police, 53 of which were made at Wembley stadium for a number of offences, including public order breaches, assault, drunk and disorderly conduct and criminal damage.[311][312][313] 19 police officers were injured, including one who lost a tooth and another suffered a broken hand.[309][314]

On 12 July 2021, a day after the final, the Football Association said it would conduct a full review into how people without tickets were able to breach security and gain access to Wembley stadium for the Euro 2020 final.[315][316][317] On 13 July 2021, following the chaotic scenes, UEFA opened a disciplinary case against the Football Association for the invasion of the pitch by an England supporter, throwing of objects by supporters, disturbances during the Italian national anthem, and the use of pyrotechnics.[318][319][320]

On 18 October 2021, UEFA punished the Football Association (FA) for the unrest at the final by ordering England to play their next UEFA competition match behind closed doors.[321] UEFA also imposed a ban for a second game, suspended for two years, and fined the FA £84,560 (€100,000) for the lack of order and discipline inside and around the stadium, for the invasion of the field of play, for the throwing of objects and for the disturbances during the national anthems.[322]

Online racist abuse after final

England football players Bukayo Saka, Jadon Sancho, and Marcus Rashford were subjected to racist abuse online after missing penalties in England's Euro 2020 final defeat by Italy.[323][324] The three football players took the last three penalties, two of which were saved by Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, during England's 3–2 loss on penalties on Sunday 11 July 2021, and were all immediately targeted with racist language and emojis on their social media accounts.[325][326]

The Football Association condemned the racist abuse and said it was "appalled by the online racism" aimed at some players on social media.[327] In a statement, it said: "We could not be clearer that anyone behind such disgusting behaviour is not welcome in following the team. We will do all we can to support the players affected while urging the toughest punishments possible for anyone responsible. We will continue to do everything we can to stamp discrimination out of the game, but we implore government to act quickly and bring in the appropriate legislation so this abuse has real life consequences. Social media companies need to step up and take accountability and action to ban abusers from their platforms, gather evidence that can lead to prosecution and support making their platforms free from this type of abhorrent abuse."[328]

The Metropolitan Police began investigating the abuse and said on Twitter that the abuse was "totally unacceptable" and it would not be tolerated.[329] British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Leader of the Opposition Keir Starmer, and the Football Association president Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, also condemned the racist abuse.[330][331]

Discover more about Incidents and controversies related topics

Crimea

Crimea

Crimea is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukraine. To the east, the Crimean Bridge, constructed in 2018, spans the Strait of Kerch, linking the peninsula with Krasnodar Krai in Russia. The Arabat Spit, located to the northeast, is a narrow strip of land that separates the Syvash lagoons from the Sea of Azov. Across the Black Sea to the west lies Romania and to the south is Turkey. The largest city is Sevastopol. The region has a population of 2.4 million, and has been under Russian occupation since 2014.

Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation

Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation

In February and March 2014, Russia invaded and subsequently annexed the Crimean Peninsula, taking it from Ukraine. This event took place in the aftermath of the Revolution of Dignity and is part of the wider Russo-Ukrainian War.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Russia)

Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Russia)

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation is the central government institution charged with leading the foreign policy and foreign relations of Russia. It is a continuation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, which was under the supervision of the Soviet Ministry of External Relations. Sergei Lavrov is the current foreign minister.

Maria Zakharova

Maria Zakharova

Maria Vladimirovna Zakharova is the Director of the Information and Press Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation since 2015.

Dmitry Svishchev

Dmitry Svishchev

Dmitry Aleksandrovich Svishchev is a Russian politician, a deputy of the 7th State Duma of the Russian Federation. He rose to prominence as a businessman and sports administrator.

Christian Eriksen

Christian Eriksen

Christian Dannemann Eriksen is a Danish professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Premier League club Manchester United and the Denmark national team. He is renowned for his vision, technique, passing, and free kick ability.

Cardiac arrest

Cardiac arrest

Cardiac arrest is when the heart stops beating. It is a medical emergency that, without immediate medical intervention, will result in cardiac death within minutes. When it happens suddenly, it is called sudden cardiac arrest. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and possibly defibrillation are needed until further treatment can be provided. Cardiac arrest results in a rapid loss of consciousness, and breathing may be abnormal or absent.

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is an emergency procedure consisting of chest compressions often combined with artificial ventilation in an effort to manually preserve intact brain function until further measures are taken to restore spontaneous blood circulation and breathing in a person who is in cardiac arrest. It is recommended in those who are unresponsive with no breathing or abnormal breathing, for example, agonal respirations.

Peter Schmeichel

Peter Schmeichel

Peter Bolesław Schmeichel is a Danish former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. During eight seasons at English club Manchester United, he captained the club to victory in the 1999 UEFA Champions League Final to complete the Treble. He also won the UEFA Euro 1992 with his country Denmark.

Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator

Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator

An implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) or automated implantable cardioverter defibrillator (AICD) is a device implantable inside the body, able to perform defibrillation, and depending on the type, cardioversion and pacing of the heart. The ICD is the first-line treatment and prophylactic therapy for patients at risk for sudden cardiac death due to ventricular fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia.

Brentford F.C.

Brentford F.C.

Brentford Football Club is a professional football club in Brentford, West London, England, which competes in the Premier League, the highest tier of English football, having gained promotion via the playoffs at the end of the 2020–21 Championship season. Nicknamed "The Bees”, the club was founded in 1889 and played home matches at Griffin Park from 1904 before moving to Gtech Community Stadium in 2020. Their main rivals are fellow West London-based clubs Fulham and Queens Park Rangers.

Marko Arnautović

Marko Arnautović

Marko Arnautović is an Austrian professional footballer who plays as a forward for Serie A club Bologna and the Austria national team.

Reception

The tournament was admired for its high scoring,[332][333] with 2.78 goals per game a record for any European Championship since the introduction of the group stage in 1980.[334] Two of the highest-scoring games at the European Championship occurred during the tournament. 18 goals scored across four group stage matches on 23 June 2021 were a tournament record,[335] whereas 14 goals scored in the Croatia vs Spain and France vs Switzerland matches on 28 June 2021 made it the highest-scoring day in knockout stages and the second highest overall.[336]

The "light touch" officiating was also well received, with a perception that referees aimed to keep play moving.[337][338]

Source: "UEFA Euro 2020", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2023, March 28th), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Euro_2020.

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References
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