Blog: the EURO without respect and with shame on its neck. Bitterness prevails after the tournament

Unfortunately, today’s football is not just about beautiful goals. It’s also about big money, which once in a while offers its peak in the form of one of the world’s tournaments. Last year, the world was deprived of a European show because of the coronavirus, and was all the more excited for this year’s. Instead of endless bliss and excitement, however, bitterness prevailed immediately after the tournament.

I can’t help it, EURO 2020 pretty much painted the real picture of world football today. No, it really isn’t my desire as an avid hockey fan to purposefully dig into the sport.

I freely admit that I was quite looking forward to it. Maybe the Czech national team’s participation helped a lot, but that’s probably not important.

I confess that I have never spent as much time with football in the past as I did with this year’s championship. When someone asks me about football in a casual discussion, I tell them quite frankly: “Football is boring!”

But I will add that when it comes to the highest level, such as the World Cup, EURO or the advanced stage of the Champions League, my overly critical views go partly by the wayside. After all, these are the world’s top sporting events.

The fact that I have actually spent an extraordinary amount of time with football this year makes me all the more disappointed with the whole Euro thing.

I would sum it all up in these basic points:

PERFORMANCE

Yes, simulation unfortunately belongs to hockey nowadays. There is some effort to eradicate it, but there are still individuals who will do so much for the team’s success that they grab their faces and fall to the ice without making contact or thinking.

Still, these excesses are rather rare. At the World Cup of Hockey we see these excesses really rarely, which rather end in some willing fall after contact with the stick. On the other hand, it’s true that the rules do help. With the stricter referee metrics, the rules are a bit closer to floorball, which only encourages this problem. Getting a foul has never been easier.

But understandably this is wrong too, there is no excuse for this behavior. If it were up to me, I would punish just a slightly simulated fall with hefty fines and suspension.

Football should take the same route. There is nothing about the sport that so significantly corrupts its purity. It is the most widely played and watched sport in the world, played on every corner of the planet.

It should be all the more in the interest of the world’s great football leaders to stamp out this disrespectful behaviour, at least at such prestigious levels as championships.

On the spur of the moment, anyone can think of the relatively fresh acting performance of Italian striker Immobile as he rolls in the whitewash after light contact as if attacked by a pack of wild dogs. And if the Italians hadn’t subsequently scored, he’d probably still be rolling in that roll today. The whole world is watching it live, including the children for whom these stars are idols.

The saddest part of it all is that it doesn’t really surprise anyone today. It’s just that football has reached the stage where it’s kind of a part of the game. One thing is that I don’t understand the thought processes of the players who create these excesses.

The other thing is that in any sport, athletes always allow themselves to do what is tolerated. Other than the embarrassment, Immobile didn’t have to worry about much. However, he advanced, the job was done.

How is it even possible that FIFA still tolerates this? After all, any footballer would deserve a red card at the very least, plus a proper reprimand for such a circus. So that he and everyone on the pitch will remember it well. If not, of course, it’s the best way to continue seeing this from the best players in the world.

Another part of the game is the constant stalling. I understand that sometimes football can really hurt. But for the leading team to completely stop play for five minutes, despite being just a few yards from the halfway line, that doesn’t exactly do much to build the popularity of the game either. It would probably be hard to count how many such situations have happened during this year’s EURA.

Of course, the tolerance of the referees is again the only reason behind everything. However, it is tactically better if the referee sets 5 minutes at the end, when seven of them have been accumulated for a 2:1 lead. Regardless of the fact that these lapses hamper the offensive efforts of the teams finishing the match.

In the end, however, the set time is the only penalty that can come. So why not try it again and again?

RIOTING, RACISM AND NO RESPECT

Few people were rooting for the English in the final. This despite the aforementioned chief simulacrum of the tournament standing on the turf on the other side. Perhaps the blackest blemish of the whole Euro is the performance of the English fans.

Moreover, it makes virtually no difference whether we’re talking about those in the stands or the others. No matter how much football fans argue with me, the sport is obsessed with such behaviour at the top level. At the club level, it’s even a level above that.

Players, along with FIFA, refer to the proud “RESPECT” on their jerseys, which eventually became a mere cosmetic addition to the shirts. The booing of the national anthem, the laser in the eyes of the opposing goalkeeper during penalties or the wrecked city. These factors somehow sum up the events of the Euro’s climax most succinctly.

The sporting world saw similar disturbances during Montreal’s recent quest for the Stanley Cup. Just so I don’t leave football alone in this. I myself don’t understand why some of the strongest fan bases of these sports have to have such strongly negative fan groups.

I write groups on purpose, because it’s always about a few individuals who ruin the fun for everyone else. It’s kind of like that among kindergarten kids already. The only difference is that there are no lives at stake, but at most a scraped knee.

However, there were so many of these groups in Albion that they greatly outweighed the final impression of the whole Euro highlight. The half-naked hero running around on the pitch was just the icing on this bitter-tasting cake.

And I haven’t even mentioned the racist insinuations against the black English players who failed to convert penalties in the decisive passage of the final match. How many protests against racism have we seen in recent years?

Players kneeling on the pitch in chorus to show they disagree with this behaviour. And then their own fans stab them in the back.

Objectively, I have to admit that this year’s Euro was certainly not lacking in beautiful goals and football moments. What was missing, however, was the aforementioned respect and sense of fair-play play. Most noticeably of all, the goal line of the tournament literally ruined my whole impression.