Euro 2020: COVID-19 leaving frustrated fans in the dark

A European Championship tournament taking place in 11 cities across the continent was always going to be an unusual affair for Europe's football fans, and that was before a pandemic forced it to be postponed by 12 months, amidst a plethora of other complications.

15 months on from the arrival of the coronavirus in Europe, most of the continent's football leagues have just completed a full season almost entirely behind closed doors.

No fans were present to witness Atletico Madrid break Barcelona and Real Madrid's stranglehold on La Liga for only the second time in 17 years, nor were any Lille supporters able to see their club's first Ligue 1 title in a decade. In Italy, Inter Milan fans could only celebrate breaking Juventus' nine-year domination of Serie A from outside the San Siro.

At least in Germany on Saturday, 250 Bayern Munich fans saw their team lift the Bundesliga trophy inside the Allianz Arena. But the rest won't have been overly disappointed; it was their ninth title in a row after all.

How many fans in Munich?

In just over three weeks' time, however, the same stadium is hoping to welcome 14,500 fans for Germany's Euro 2020 group games against France (June 15), Portugal (June 19) and Hungary (June 23), plus a quarterfinal (July 2) – coronavirus infection rates permitting.

At the end of April, the city of Munich risked facing the same fate as Bilbao and Dublin, which were stripped of their games by UEFA after local authorities were unable to guarantee that fans would be present.

But in the case of Munich, UEFA said it had "been informed that the responsible authorities have authorized the staging of all four games with at least 14,500 spectators."

But that seemed to be news to Munich city mayor Dieter Reiter. Despite his office being responsible for communicating the situation to UEFA, along with the local health authority, he said: "Whether the games take place in front of spectators, or how many, nobody can say. There have as yet been no spectator guarantees." Similarly, a spokesperson for the German home office, responsible for sport, told German public broadcaster Sportschau:  "Whether spectators are allowed or not depends on the infection rates."

The German football association (DFB) would only confirm that a "blueprint scenario for a minimal capacity of 14,500 in Munich is considered realistic" but that "an adjustment could be necessary if local authorities see a danger to public health due to COVID-19." In short, the picture is unclear.

Indeed, an alternative scenario published by the city of Munich could see Germany's games take place in front of just 7,000 fans. As of June 2, the seven-day infection rate per 100,000 inhabitants in Munich has been below 35 for five days in a row, less than the rate at which the city council would have allowed Bayern Munich to play in front of a limited number of supporters back in October, which never actually came to pass.

But for some fans who would have liked to attend games, the tournament is already over before it's even begun.

Ticket cancellations and travel restrictions

Last week, UEFA began cancelling thousands of tickets purchased back in 2019 due to capacity restrictions, with ten of the eleven host stadiums operating at reduced capacity – only the Puskas Arena in the Hungarian capital of Budapest will be full.

Controversially however, they are continuing to advertise expensive hospitality seats while sponsors are giving away promotional tickets, much to the frustration of regular fans who are not only missing out but may also have ended up short-changed due to currency exchange rates and bank charges.

"It just goes to show that it's not the fans that matter to them, it's money," says John, an England fan who regularly follows the team around Europe but has decided to sit this one out due to travel restrictions between the UK and his home in Germany. And he won't be on his own.

Travelers arriving in the UK, and in the Netherlands, are currently obliged to quarantine for ten days, whereas no fans at all can travel to Denmark from abroad. In Munich, quarantine rules depend on where fans are traveling from, while Azerbaijan is lifting its travel ban for nationals of the countries playing in Baku.

Ticket holders are not required to quarantine in Hungary, nor in Romania – provided they're only staying in the latter for no longer than three days.

Frustrated fans

With Germany playing all three of their group games plus a potential quarterfinal in Munich, German fans whose tickets haven't been cancelled won't have to travel abroad – at least initially. But even that has robbed the tournament of its attraction for fans like Lars, who regularly follows the Nationalmannschaft abroad.

"It's annoying that it's taking place in so many different countries and not in one host nation which we could then visit and travel around," he says. "And with Germany playing in Munich anyway, it's boring, it's familiar, I've been there before.

"The attraction is the chance to travel abroad. That's where the real fans go. But we all know that Germany 'home games' are different, full of people in face paint who aren't interested in football all year but are suddenly fans for the Euros.

"And even if you do have a ticket, sitting alone and wearing a mask all game isn't really my idea of football."

England fan John agrees. "It wouldn't be much fun anyway; I'll just watch it in the pub. Hopefully I can travel to the World Cup qualifiers in Poland and Hungary in September."