Since the first weekend of this European Championship, “Fuck Euro 2020” has been smeared with black felt-tip pen on several signs on Nevsky Prospect, the gleaming main street of Saint Petersburg. At the beginning of the tournament, you could trade it for the work of a vandal who has little interest in football or in major sporting events in general. In the meantime, however, it is just as possible that someone expressed himself very roughly who had concerns about the virological circumstances surrounding the games in Russia.
More than a week of “Euro 2020” in the pandemic summer 2021 is over, the preliminary round is drawing to a close, and the tournament has produced some remarkable pictures. The sympathy for the drama about Christian Eriksen in Denmark, the applause in the game against Belgium from spectators, players and referees in the tenth minute in the stadium in Copenhagen, was dedicated to the midfielder with the number ten, who was close after his cardiac arrest in the previous game He was hospitalized and has since been discharged after a successful operation. A lot has also happened in terms of sport, the Italians and Belgians have so far stood out, and since Saturday evening the German national team has also arrived in the tournament with a 4-2 draw against Portugal.
In Russia, of all places, the number of infections is increasing
Aside from that, the mood at this tournament is as difficult to gauge as it was anticipated. Are you excited about football? Of course, that depends on the locations. In London, on the verge of the 0-0 England win against the Scots, the joy of football was quite evident. But can you see them, for example, when a stadium in Budapest is full again? Or does that disappear completely behind the fact that the pictures of a stadium that is allegedly only full of vaccinated people are mainly used by Hungary’s right-wing populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban?
And then there is Saint Petersburg, the focus of the preliminary round, nowhere are more group games, four are over, two are still to come. In Russia, of all places, where there are more different guest fans than anywhere else, where the vaccination campaign is stagnating, the number of infections has been rising again for days. The lax restrictions have just been tightened a little, after the Russians’ last home game, of course. On Saint Petersburg’s White Nights, restaurants close from two to six. The mask requirement is now also more clearly indicated in the subway – at least at the entrance. And before the second European Championship weekend, a fan zone was closed in Moscow. The one in Saint Petersburg is still open.
“Fuck Euro 2020”, the Finns would not say that, the largest number of guest fans in Russia, they just had to travel across a border. Some stayed at home, following the recommendations of the local institute for health, some apparently even let their tickets expire. Those who are there anyway are obviously having a good time. Maybe you have to see some things pragmatically at this EM of contradictions. They go to the stadium, they also go to the bars in front of it. But one of the fans said that they would do without having a sauna with Russians.
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