Euro 2020: World’s top sporting event since pandemic to kick off

The UEFA Euro 2020, the world’s biggest sporting event since the coronavirus brought the world to a standstill, is due for kick-off after being delayed for a year due to the pandemic.

The football tournament’s opening match will take place on Friday evening in Rome, with hosts Italy taking on Turkey. The Italian capital is one of 11 cities that will host matches during the month-long event.

Attendance at Stadio Olimpico is capped at 15,000 fans who need to have proof of vaccination, a negative test or have already had COVID-19.

“After all that’s happened, now that the situation is getting better, I think the time has come to start providing fans with something to be satisfied about,” Italy coach Roberto Mancini told reporters in Rome.

More than 1 million Europeans have died in the pandemic, including almost 127,000 Italians. Some 3.7 million people have lost their lives worldwide.

The tournament was postponed in March 2020 when countries were scrambling to contain virus outbreaks and major sporting events around the world were cancelled or put on hold.

Soccer Football – Euro 2020 – Group A – Turkey v Italy – Rome, Italy – June 11, 2021 A young Italy fan sits in a protective mask in Rome before the match REUTERS/Yara Nardi

Mark Doyle, deputy features editor at Goal.com, said just holding the tournament at all was a major victory in itself.

“If you had asked me two or three months ago if Rome would be in a position to stage a match, I would have said absolutely not, the numbers were still too high,” he told Al Jazeera.

“It’s difficult to find someone who hasn’t been deeply affected by this in terms of the loss of a loved one … so, just getting fans into the stadium, I think is a massive achievement,” he said.

While many worry that it is still not safe to bring many fans together in stadiums across Europe, organisers hope measures including crowd limitations, staggered arrival times for fans and physical distancing rules, among others, will help prevent a resurgence of virus infections, which have dropped sharply in Europe in recent months.

Ramifications unknown

If everything goes smoothly, Euro 2020 can give a confidence boost to other major sporting events such as the Tokyo Olympics, scheduled to open on July 23 – also a year late. If it does not, it would be a serious setback that could have ramifications beyond football.

COVID-19 has already had an effect on the tournament, which for the first time is not being hosted by one or two nations but is spread out across the continent.

Belgium players in training at Petrovsky Stadium, Saint Petersburg, Russia [Anton Vaganov/REUTERS]

Spain captain Sergio Busquets tested positive for COVID-19 and will miss the team’s first match against Sweden in Seville on Monday. Another Spain player tested positive, as did two of Sweden’s players. The Spanish squad was getting vaccinated on Friday.

Russia winger Andrey Mostovoy then became the first player to be cut from a national team on Friday after testing positive.

Italy’s opening match against Turkey will bring together the biggest crowd in the country since it went into a full lockdown 15 months ago, even though the stadium will be filled to only 25 percent of its capacity.

In Rome and elsewhere in Italy, most virus restrictions have been lifted. A midnight curfew and a requirement to wear a mask outside one’s home are the most tangible ways in which the pandemic still affects the daily lives of citizens.