Google Doodle on Friday denoted the start of the UEFA European Football Championship wishing luck to all the competing teams.
A staple tournament for football fans worldwide since 1960, this year is the first run through in history that the tournament’s 51 matches will be held in host cities across Europe—a dozen in total like Denmark, England, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, Russia, and Spain — have qualified for the tournament. Two others — Hungary and Scotland — made it via the play-offs, while Romania and Azerbaijan missed out. Two teams are making their debut — Finland and North Macedonia.
The postponed Euro 2020 which at finally starts on Friday, is a year behind schedule, with Covid actually set to project a shadow over the tournament.
The continent-wide event, first envisaged by then-UEFA president Michel Platini when he declared the tournament would be held across Europe, will be played before restricted crowds and with strict health limitations set up.
The activity starts off at Rome’s Stadio Olimpico, where Italy take on Turkey before 16,000 fans.
Most of the 11 venues, all in various nations, might be partially-filled for matches, despite the fact that Denmark on Thursday reported it would lift mask rules and permit 25,000 fans, rather than 16,000, to go to games in Copenhagen.
Munich intends to host at least 14,500 fans – around 22% of the Allianz Arena’s capacity, the most reduced of the stadiums being utilized.
Dublin and Bilbao were dropped from the list of hosts after to being not able to give guarantees they could meet UEFA’s prerequisite of accommodating limited numbers of spectators, however Seville stepped in for Bilbao while Dublin’s games went to London and Saint-Petersburg.
On the pitch, France will be firm favourites despite being one of the few traditional giants not to have any games at home. The world champions’ first match is in Munich against Germany on Tuesday.