Europe’s football chief Michel Platini might want to consult with fans before meeting with the continent’s football federations in December on whether to spread the Euro 2020 tournament across many European cities rather than in just one or two countries.
The main
idea, according to Platini, is to have countries save money since they would
presumably have to upgrade or build one stadium or airport instead of four like
Poland and Ukraine each did.
It also
means that by staging matches in a number of cities around the continent, the
European championship is brought to the fans. The tournament’s identity might be
diluted, but fans in far-off places such as Kazakhstan could get to see
tournament games.
“We
are going to have a meeting with all of our national federations coming up to
December and in December or January we’re are going to make a decision,” Platini announced
on June 30.
The Kyiv
Post polled fans in Kyiv’s fan zone along Khreshchatyk Street to probe their
thoughts on the newly proposed Euro format.
Miguel Solarez, Spain
“We want to
go to Poland,;we want to go to Ukraine. We don’t want to go to (all of)
England, Germany, (and) Poland. We go to one country and stay in one country.
We prefer one country.”
Oxana Gonzalez, Spain
“Two
countries or one country is better.”
Remco Beijer, Netherlands
“It’s not a
good format. You want to have a big Euro theme.”
Javier Reyes, U.S.
“Generally,
I like the two-country format that is relatively close. You don’t want to
spread it out too much, otherwise it’ll get diluted.”
Justin Delmonte, Australia
“Just
travelling between Poland and Ukraine takes long. We’d rather go to one or two
cities. … If a match were in Kazakhstan, we wouldn’t go.”
Azamat Smagulov, Kazakhstan
“Logistically,
the Euro 2020 format makes it difficult to travel from one city to another, but
it’s quite an interesting idea.”
Ilya Tonshev, Russia
I don’t
understand the 2020 format. For fans it’ll be difficult. A member of parliament
could just get on a plane and fly, but for a regular fan it’ll be difficult.”
Askar Bakizeyev, Kazakhstan
“The Euro
2020 format is interesting because the more countries involved, the more people
get exposed to football culture, but I would stick with four countries at the
most.”
