TAOISEACH MICHEÁL MARTIN said today that Uefa was “out of order” over its insistence fans must attend Euro 2020 matches, which led it to drop Dublin as a host city.
European football’s governing body announced on Friday that the Irish capital and Bilbao in Spain would no longer host matches in the delayed competition.
The move followed Irish football chiefs and the Basque government saying they were unable to give assurances on minimum spectator levels.
The four matches once destined for Dublin — three group games and a last-16 tie — will now be held in St Petersburg and London, while Seville has stepped in to replace Bilbao.
“I thought Uefa were out of order, quite frankly, putting that condition on countries,” Martin told RTÉ.
“To force spectators in prematurely in my view was a wrong call by the footballing authorities, and I never thought it was a realistic proposition.”
He noted the high incidence of Covid-19 “all over Europe” and said Ireland was “not going too far ahead of ourselves” as it eases its months-old lockdown measures.
Held over from 2020 due to the pandemic, the European Championship will now be held in 11 different countries from 11 June- 11 July.
Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin has said it will be able to “guarantee a safe and festive environment” with fans “at every match”.
The organiser insisted it had forced the switch “simply to allow fans to attend the games after a year of not being able to watch live football in stadiums”.
Budapest, St Petersburg, Baku, Amsterdam, Bucharest, Glasgow, Copenhagen, Rome and London all promised crowds at between 25% and 100% of capacity in the run-up to a Uefa deadline this month.
