UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has suggested that he would not support another pan-continental tournament like Euro 2020, citing the huge differences in the distances that teams and fans have had to travel.
The tournament has been held in 11 host cities in total, with some teams forced to fly over 10,000 kilometres over the last few weeks.
Originally championed by Ceferin’s predecessor Michel Platini, the format was fiercely criticised from its inception. As well as the inconvenience and prohibitive costs for fans, it was highly controversial because of its envisaged environmental impact.
While UEFA claimed that the lack of new stadium builds and infrastructure work required would help to offset the tournament’s intensive travel demands, many climate campaigners strongly condemned the idea.
Speaking in 2019, Ceferin defended the format. “The nature of the tournament means there are many benefits over a traditional one,” he said.
“In addition to being able to take the matches to more diverse communities across Europe, there is no need either to build a host of new stadiums or the transport links that they require, which carry a huge environmental impact from, for instance, materials and other resources used for the development of such infrastructure.”
Now, however, Ceferin has conceded that he would no longer support a continent-wide tournament on the basis that it has been “too challenging” for players and supporters.
“I would not support it anymore,” he told BBC Sport. “In a way, it is not correct that some teams have to travel more than 10,000km while others have to only travel 1,000km.
“It is not fair to fans, who had to be in Rome one day and in Baku over the next few, which is a four and a half hour flight.
“We had to travel a lot, into countries with different jurisdictions, different currencies, countries in the European Union and Non-EU, so it was not easy.
“It was a format that was decided before I came [into post] and I respect it. It is an interesting idea but it is hard to implement and I don’t think we will do it again.”
The coronavirus pandemic further exposed the impracticalities of the format, with fans barred from travelling to various countries depending on ever-changing government advice and local restrictions.
Wales defender Chris Gunter is among the players who have criticised the format, with Welsh fans advised not to attend their group games and barred from entering the Netherlands for their last-16 meeting with Denmark.
Rob Page’s side were forced to travel from Baku to Rome in the group stage, before moving on to Amsterdam where they were beaten 4-0 by the eventual semi-finalists.
“Written off before a bag of air was kicked, 3,000 miles from home. Every nation had fans wherever they went,” Gunter wrote on Instagram.
“You and us deserved more from this joke set-up of a tournament, but who said life was fair.”
Sign up to the Mirror Football email here for the latest news and transfer gossip.
