Join Now for Free
Home » Fan Forums » Tickets & Travel

Wembley Final and Semi-Finals at risk

According to newspaper reports this morning, there is a risk that the final and semi-finals of Euro 2020 may be moved to Budapest. The issue is the same one which resulted in the Champions League final being played in Porto instead of London : UEFA wants quarantine exemptions for their officials, sponsors, broadcasters and VIPs.

It shouldn't be any surprise that UEFA is negotiating for exemptions. The only disappointing thing is that they are not also demanding exemptions for any fans who have tickets to these matches. The government has been crowing about how they are going to allow 50% crowds for these matches but they seem to be oblivious of the fact that most of the tickets have been bought by johnny foreigner. Considering that the last chance to back out of the tickets and get refunds was before the UK government confirmed their country entry conditions and published which countries were on which list, ticketed fans will have spent hundreds of euros on tickets which they are unlikely to be able to use. And the participating teams are not going to be able to sell out their 'follow my team' allocations, except for the home nations.

Not only has Hungary got less restrictive entry conditions, but Budapest will allow full crowds.

The government's argument would be that, if they allow exemptions in these circumstances, then holidaymakers are going to demand the same exemptions.

13 Replies

  • Paul Jarvis
    apparently he said it would help our world cup bid for 2030 ( which we wont get anyway ) ? if thats the case why didnt he say that for the champions league final before 10,000 had to up roots and go to porto ???
  • Christopher Cooksey
    UK government have made a right mess of this. Putting restrictions on some people but allowing dangerous variants into the country without care.
  • Matthew Isle
    Brinkmanship?
  • Tim Powell
    Let’s hope it’s an England v Wales Final then as UEFA might struggle to justify it then!
  • Roger Loughney
    Thanks David for the summary. I agree with Christopher - we should not let the dangerous UEFA variant into the UK. It will be followed soon after by the highly toxic FIFA variant. Paul says we will not get the 2030 World Cup. Dead right. It will be the turn of another Continent - Europe in the form of Russia hosted it in '18, Middle East in '22; North America in '26. It will then be the turn of Asia, or Africa, or South America. If the UK Government thinks doing favours will help, they are sadly mistaken - go back some years to when Cameron, Beckham and Prince William went lobbying for the '22 World Cup. We had already used incentives like offering an England friendly in Bangkok to Thailand, to show our appreciation of their FA's promised vote. Guess what - that vote, and enough of the others, was bought by oil money from Qatar - not a bribe of course, but the provision of "financial assistance to develop the game". By the way, I recall too that the Burberry handbag given to the wife of Warner - Trinidad FA bent official - was stuffed with US Dollars. Luckily, someone in the English FA remembered to cancel the friendly.
    The whole revolting saga is further demonstration of the arrogance of UEFA and FIFA, an arrogance all too obvious to many of us in recent weeks, when we saw the paltry ticket allocation to the English and other FA's, and the bloated allocation to UEFA "officials", plus assorted hangers-on and parasites. It wasn't all about loyalty and attendance at away matches.
  • Paul Jarvis

    In reply to Roger Loughney:

    think you've hit the nail on the roger.....go back 8 weeks to the super league,i was all for it and would have run it like we do promotion/relegation etc etc except involving all teams and countries so really just run it normally but europe wide and maybe regional matches ? they ( FIFA and EUFA ) just take the p..s and this further demonstrates that its not really ' FOR THE FANS' its for the hangers on and moneymen.......had to turn the TV off today as every person on breakfast TV seemed to be going.
  • Ian Costain

    In reply to Christopher Cooksey:

    I don't support any political party - and certainly didn't vote for the current government. But I don't necessarily agree with the comment that the "UK government have made a right mess of this". The government appears to being put in an almost impossible position by UEFA. It seems to me like the criticism should be directed at UEFA.
  • Gary Prince
    Agree, our Government with it's ongoing restrictions are stating that it's much safer to play elsewhere in Europe. The Semis and Final need capacity crowds. Easy decision for UEFA, move the matches to a safer country, Hungary seems ideal.
  • Darren Henman
    I'm sure it wont be an issue really will it, after all these travel restriction rules only effect the common people don't they?

    I'm sure we will let in UEFA delegates in the end, the same way as we did when we let in people and their entourage, including press, etc, as we did for the G7 nations and those invited attendees including those from India.
  • Thomas Chambers
    London - Budapest Saturday to Monday is 20 pound currently if anyone is optimistic enough about getting to the final
  • Alan Sutton

    In reply to Thomas Chambers:

    If all those G7 creeps and their wives, hairdressers etc could be exempt then I don't see why the UEFA creeps can't be exempt as well. Maybe they could hold a barbecue as well by the edge of the pitch and invite Boris.

    As we all know, these rules (which are enforced haphazardly) are for the little people, and the virus is very clever (Platini, can't infect him|)
  • Alistair Crawshaw
    To be quite honest with the restrictions on travel to the UK and restrictions set to be lifted for travel within the EU. Having the semis and final at Wembley will massively inconvenience four sets of fans. Having it in Budapest won't inconvenience any fans as neither England or Wales will be involved by that stage.
  • Brian Crofts

    In reply to Gary Prince:

    Depends on your definition of safe. Hungary has the second worst Covid death rate in the world ( after Peru). Full stadiums look great on TV, but I’m not sure what it’s doing for transmission of the virus.
Sign In or Sign Up

To participate within this community you need to sign is as an England Supporters Club member here.