June 29 – While the British government continues to trumpet the success of its vaccine rollout across the country, theEU’s head office in Brussels has warned UEFA to be careful when staging the semi-finals and final of Euro 2020 at Wembley because of the rise of the highly contagious delta variant of Covid-19.
Although the tournament is being held across the continent, the final three matches will all be in London where cases of coronavirus are enduring a worrying spike and the take-up of the vaccine is not as strong as elsewhere.
Organisers have announced that Wembley could have up to 60,000 fans – two thirds of capacity – for the climax of the competition but this is worrying EU officials, given that at least three of the four semi-finalists will come from across the Channel .
“I would like to share my doubt with you about the possibility of organising the final or the semi-final in Wembley in a stadium – full stadium,” EU Commission vice president Margaritis Schinas told European Union legislators.
“Given that the United Kingdom is restricting its citizens movements to the European Union (there) needs to be a certain amount of symmetry in these kinds of decisions, a certain amount of proportionality,” Schinas said. “So, I think here that UEFA would do well to carefully analyse its decision.”
Schinas told legislators that EU scientific projections showed that 70% of new infections are projected to be due to the delta variant in Europe by early August, and 90% by the end of August.
“There is clearly a very worrying trend,” Schinas said, “something that compels us to continue being very vigilant.”
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