The controversies that took 2020 UEFA Euro by a storm
The UEFA Euro 2020 tournament was not without controversies – from Ronaldo’s Coca Cola snub to England fans’ conduct throughout the competition, there were a number of moments that raised our eyebrows.
The tournament reached its conclusion on Sunday when England and Italy played out a memorable final at Wembley, resulting in a win for the Italians in the penalty shoot-out (1-1 A.E.T.)
But apart from the goals and the saves, there were a number of controversial moments that will make this edition of Euros somewhat more distinct than its predecessors. Here, we turn back the pages to glance at some moments during UEFA Euro 2020 that redirected our attention away from the beautiful sport.
5. Cristiano Ronaldo and the Coca Cola indicent
Sitting in a press conference ahead of his team’s Group F opener against Hungary, Cristiano Ronaldo was not happy to see Coca Cola bottles on the desk. The company was one of the sponsors at the tournament, but Ronaldo still decided to move it away from the frame of the cameras.
He then held up a bottle of water and mouthed the word “Water!”. Ronaldo advocating against drinking the beverage saw Coca Cola suffer a $4billion drop in its market value. Soft drinks aren’t the healthiest in the world and this is a moment that did more good than harm to the general public. Hence, we believe that this is a rare controversial moment that the world did not know it needed.
4. Raheem Sterling penalty decision vs Denmark
This incident reignited the debate surrounding VAR. With the league season behind us, Euros barely saw any refereeing controversies and fans were warming up to how VAR was used with minimal interference in the game and maximum efficacy when it came to decision making. But that changed in the semi-final between England and Denmark.
With the game at 1-1, Raheem Sterling went down easily in the 103rd minute to win his team the spot-kick. There was seemingly no contact and when there seemed to be any collision, Sterling already looked to be on his way down.
VAR completed the check and Danny Makkelie’s on-field decision stayed. England scored the penalty as Harry Kane scored from the rebound, and they won 2-1.
This obviously generated cries of foul play from other fanbases and pundits, and what made this more controversial was the fact that there were two balls on the pitch when the penalty decision was given. The Danes would still feel hard done by this and rightly so.
3. The cameras during the Christian Eriksen incident
In one of the most shocking moments in the history of international football, Denmark midfielder Christian Eriksen collapsed on the pitch against Finland in their first group game. He recovered a few hours later but the scenes on the pitch worried the viewers all across the globe.
In such moments, the cameras should be away from the incident on the pitch in order to protect the privacy of the player involved.
Instead of doing that, the cameras were focused on Eriksen and the medics, with a few shots even covering the face of Eriksen’s distressed wife in stands. This saw BBC receive 6,417 complaints from fans.
The same cameras that cut away when there’s a streaker on the pitch were then focused on a player undergoing emergency medical treatment. Hopefully, this is the last time we saw anything like this ever.
2. Marko Arnautovic targets Ezgjan Alioski
Things get heated on a football pitch, but nothing excuses racism and disrespectful language that attacks the dignity of another person. Unfortunately, Marko Arnautovic got carried away after scoring his side’s third goal against North Macedonia in the Group C opener for both sides.
The former Stoke City forward, who is of Serbian heritage, appeared to mouth insults to Egzon Bejtulai and Ezgjan Alioski, both of whom have Albanian roots.
The Daily Mail cites claims that Arnatuovic said ‘I’m ******* your Albanian mother’ to the former Leeds United defender. Despite the racist undertones, UEFA banned him for just one game and made no mention of racism in their verdict.
1. England fans vs Italy (and Denmark)
Fanbases of each country and even clubs could have a small section of people that give everyone else a bad name. England seemed to have a bit more of such people during the Euros, whose conduct really showed the Three Lions fans in a terrible light.
From booing national anthems of Denmark and Italy to showing no respect for the knee, a gesture to show the sport’s fight against racism, England fans’ conduct in the stands was not ideal at all. One such fan even shone a laser light in Kasper Schmeichel’s face as he attempted to save Kane’s penalty in the semi-final.
The worst was saved for the final, when a bunch of England fans broke barriers to get inside the Wembley stadium without tickets and then proceeded to brawl with each other, resulting in some shocking NSFW footage. Needless to say, the FA and the English government would need to learn from this the next time England host any major tournament.
