EURO 2021
Almost 2000 in Scotland, hundreds in Finland: Concern about corona spread through European Championship games grows
England fans at the match against Germany at Wembley Stadium on Tuesday
© Catherine Ivill / Getty Images
The European Football Championship 2021 will take place in several European countries this year – despite Corona. This causes persistent criticism, not least because of the Delta variant. The critics seem to be right.
“Uefa is responsible for the deaths of many people.”With this dramatic sentence, the SPD health expert Karl Lauterbach criticized the current European Football Championship and the organizer, the European Football Union. Specifically, it was about the discussion about the admission of spectators at the European Football Championship. “The game yesterday showed again how close the fans are, how often they hug and shout at each other. Hundreds have certainly become infected and these are now infecting thousands in turn, ” Lauterbach wrote on Twitter on Wednesday. The German national team’s 2-0 defeat of England in the round of 16 on Tuesday evening drew a crowd of 41,973 at London’s Wembley Stadium. Even 60,000 spectators are to be admitted for the semi-finals and the final.
Vice Chancellor and SPD candidate for Chancellor Olaf Scholz also urged caution. “Despite all the joy about the spectacular games of this European Championship, I think it is questionable how many spectators are now allowed into some stadiums, “Scholz told the”Süddeutsche Zeitung”. “Painstakingly and with great effort we have got the pandemic in Europe under control, we should not put that at risk now,” said Scholz.
Federal Minister of the Interior Horst Seehofer (CSU) has also sharply criticized the Football Association. “I consider this position of Uefa to be absolutely irresponsible,” said the 71-year-old at the Federal Press Conference in Berlin on Thursday. “We all know that avoiding contact and certain hygiene rules are essential to overcome the infections one day.”But when you see the pictures of” people who are very close to each other” and “celebrating success with big hugs”, it is “foreshadowed that this promotes the infection process”.
Almost 2000 infections in Scotland after European Championship match
The figures seem to prove the politicians right: In Scotland, for example, almost 2000 corona cases can be linked to games of the European Championship, according to official data. Two thirds of those who tested positive in 1991 were fans who had travelled to London to play, contrary to advice from the North, Public Health Scotland said on Wednesday. On 18 June, the Scots played England in London. Almost 400 infected people from Scotland are said to have been in the stadium, while thousands more fans populated streets and squares in the city center.
The infection figures refer to people who tested positive and attended European Championship matches or fan events during their infectious phase-between 11 and 28 June. According to the authority, three quarters of those infected were between 20 and 39 years old, nine out of ten were men.
Quarter-finals in Corona-Hotspot St. Petersburg
Many now look anxiously to St. Petersburg. Ahead of the first quarter-final match between Switzerland and Spain this Friday, the situation in the Russian port city, which is considered a corona hotspot, is becoming increasingly acute. However, no changes or even a postponement of the match are planned by Uefa, the European Football Union explains at the request of the German Press Agency. “The final decision on the number of spectators is always up to the local authorities.”Since the start of the European Football Championship, more than 1300 people have died of corona in St. Petersburg, where six matches have already been hosted, according to official data. On Tuesday alone, there were 119-more than ever since the pandemic began.
A stricter hygiene concept for Friday’s game in the stadium is not necessary, say the Russian organizers, according to state agency Tass. It remains the case: 50 percent of the more than 60,000 seats in the Gazprom Arena may be occupied by Spain against Switzerland. Russian Leader Vladimir Putin has defended the hosting of European Championship games in St. Petersburg. “First of all, we were forced to fulfill our obligations,” he said on Wednesday during a question-and-answer session broadcast live on state television in Moscow.
Infections also in Scandinavia
But even before that, a match at the European Championship site caused an increase in corona infections: Finnish authorities had announced on Friday that almost 300 spectators of the match Finland against Belgium, which had taken place on 21 June in St. Petersburg, had already tested positive for Corona. An increase in corona numbers in the Scandinavian country is attributed on the one hand to the Delta variant and on the other hand to the football fans who traveled back from St. Petersburg. Similar complaints are coming from Sweden.
Denmark has also seen an increase in infections with the delta variant. After further cases of corona infection during the European Football Championship, the Danish health authorities renewed their call for thousands of spectators to be tested on Friday. In total, at least nine fans were found to be infected with the particularly contagious delta variant after the match between Denmark and Belgium at the stadium in Copenhagen, the Authority for Patient Protection said.
In addition, there would be four fans who got infected during the match Denmark vs. Russia. Therefore, all spectators who would have been in the stands B of the stadium during the match should also take a PCR test.
How many infected after match Germany-England?
Meanwhile, the British government is advising football fans not to travel to Rome for the European Championship quarter-final match between England and Ukraine on Saturday. However, not because of the risk of infection spreading: Italian health precautions prescribed a five-day quarantine for travelers from the UK. British fans would therefore miss the game. A stay in Italy would also mean a ten-day quarantine after the return of the fans, according to the British government. Even fans with tickets can no longer use them due to the applicable corona regulations.
The round of 16 Germany against England on Tuesday took place in London with almost 45,000 spectators in front of the largest audience to date. Distance and masks were rather a rarity at Wembley Stadium. How many fans and observers have become infected there will become clear in the coming weeks.
