After England’s controversial penalty in extra time against Denmark, the Italian press have claimed the decision was handed to them as a favour for Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s intervention in the Super League debacle.
Raheem Sterling won the spot kick on Wednesday evening as he flounced to the ground under next to no pressure from the Denmark defence. Referee Danny Makkelie immediately pointed to the spot.
La Gazzetta dello Sport, and other Italian newspapers, have described the contact on Sterling as completely non-existent and denounced the decision even more so given the lack of intervention from VAR.
England’s route to the final has also come under scrutiny as five of the six games played were are Wembley – the other in Rome – and the final is also at Wembley, essentially making Euro 2020 a home tournament for the English.
At the beginning of 2021, European football was shaken to the core with the announcement of the Super League, which included England’s big six teams – Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur. However, a massive backlash from fans in England saw the project disbanded within three days.
The British Prime Minister also got involved and opposed the formation of the Super League, branding it a ‘cartel’ and announcing he would do everything in his power to ensure it could not move forward, much to the delight of UEFA.
“I think it’s not in the interests of fans, it’s not in the interests of football,” Johnson said.
“How can it be right to have a situation in which you create a kind of cartel that stops clubs competing against each other, playing against each other properly, with all the hope and excitement that gives to the fans up and down the country?
These clubs, these names, originate from famous towns and cities in our country. I don’t think that it is right that they should be somehow dislocated from their home towns, home cities, taken and turned into international brands and commodities that just circulate the planet, propelled by the billions of banks, without any reference to fans and to those who have loved them all their lives.”
And when asked what he would do, Johnson added: “What we want to do first of all is back the FA, back the Premier League and hope that we can thwart this proposal before it goes very much further.”
