“It’s not on” was just one of the things said as a pundit slams UEFA for a decision handed to England during this summer’s Euros.
The Three Lions are clear favourites to be crowned European champions on Sunday night, but first they have to try and knock out Denmark in the quarter finals, and then face either Italy or Spain for the trophy.
Both the semis and final are at Wembley, and this means that Gareth Southgate’s side have played all bar one of the tournament’s games at their own national stadium.
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This has causes quite a backlash, though funny this has come now and yet no one complained prior to the Euros starting, just like Wales moaning about the travel, yet knew this would be something they would have to end up doing anyway in this one of special competition with games played across Europe rather thna just one country.
Pundits say England constantly playing at Wembley has given them as significant an edge as virtually any ‘host nation’ would have enjoyed down the years.
When then-UEFA president Michel Platini first came up this surprise scheme to stage a tournament that would belong to no single country — with almost half of Europe sharing the costs and benefits of hosting rights — this surely wasn’t what he had in mind.
While Southgate can point to a spectacular 4-0 trashing of Ukraine in Rome as evidence of his team’s ability to travel, many neutrals are already unhappy about his team getting an ‘easy’ ride all the way to glory.
Former Scotland star Craig Burley, now a pundit for US-based broadcaster ESPN, let rip on air during the weekend — insisting there is no ‘fairness’ in a format that benefits one team more than any other.
Burley, in discussion with a panel including the likes of former England star Steve McManaman, accused UEFA of making a ‘complete hash’ of their flagship event.
Craig Burley losing his absolute shit over England playing their games at Wembley 😂🏴 pic.twitter.com/5z05080Jum
— Pub Politics #itscominghome 🏴🍻 (@pub_politics) July 5, 2021
‘If you get to the final — which I think England will, even though Denmark are the best team still in there — you are going to play six out of seven games at Wembley,’ said the former Celtic and Chelsea midfielder.
‘What the hell is that all about from UEFA? You’ve played four games at Wembley already.
‘If you are an elite country, which England supposedly are, you can’t have them playing six out of the seven games in front of their own fans. So UEFA have made a complete hash of it.’
Whatever format you settle on for a tournament, of course, someone is always going to get a better run.
Host-nation status famously allowed England to play every single game at Wembley during their 1966 World Cup triumph, and after thirty years of hurt (sorry, our mind is fully stuck with a particular famous song), and with Euro ’96 hosting rights in the bag, England had a similar path to glory, only to then stumbled in the semis at Wembley.
Burley, who was part of the Scotland team beaten 2-0 by the home side in the group stage in London 25 years ago, insisted: ‘I’ve got no problem with England, in the tournament I played in, playing their games at Wembley as they were hosting the whole tournament.
‘But we’ve just seen Belgium go out after travelling all over. We’ve seen other countries suffer the same.
‘There has to be an element of fairness to this. Not playing six out of the seven games, if you get to the final, at Wembley when you’re not hosting the tournament. It’s not on.’
While most of us are just happy to see the European Championship going ahead after the pandemic we’ve endured, it’s now become apparent just how much home advantage has helped the four teams that are left standing from the original field of 24.
While Switzerland travelled over 7,000-plus miles, with the Welsh, Swedes, Czechs and Belgians not far behind, Italy played all three of their group games in Rome.
Spain didn’t stray from Seville during their group schedule, giving them an obvious lift in tight games, and Denmark are a special case, given everything that’s gone on following Christian Eriksen’s cardiac arrest, can you really argue that a full house at Copenhagen’s Parken Stadium didn’t play a part in their 4-1 victory over Russia in that final must-win group match?
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Then there’s the Three Lions, who have picked up two tight 1-0 wins, against Croatia and Czech Republic, either side of a 0-0 draw with Scotland, all at Wembley, followed by a last-16 tie against Germany in the same ground — a 2-0 win that could have gone either way at different stages.
Spain, Italy and Denmark all had to travel for their matches in the round of 16, heading to Copenhagen, Wembley and Amsterdam respectively.
Denmark then had to get themselves all the way to a sweltering Baku for their quarter-final, while Spain went to St Petersburg. At least Italy only had to endure a short trip over the Alps to Munich while England went to Rome.
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In the entire history of the European Championships, in games involving a ‘home’ team, the hosts have won almost half of the time, with the number of ‘away’ wins hovering around the 30% mark.
Host nations outscore opponents, on average, by 1.7 to 1.1 goals per match. If trends over the past 20 years have seen an overall narrowing of the gap, the numbers don’t seem to lie, and that’s not taking into account England’s frankly ridiculous record at Wembley under Southgate.
In 15 competitive games, the Euros and World Cup qualifiers, as well as the current tournament — his team have won 14 and drawn just one.
While we may have seen some slip-ups in the Nations League, including a 1-0 defeat to semi-final opponents Denmark last October, who really cared for that?
The only team to take points off England at Wembley in ‘proper’ matches since Southgate’s appointment back in 2016 were Scotland who failed to take advantage of the two games played at Hampden Park against the Czechs and Croatia.
As one pundit slams UEFA for the decision handed to England during this summer’s Euros, saying “It’s not on”, fans reacted online…
@Aitchweb: How do you spell Craig Burley? S-O-U-R G-R-A-P-E-S
@spidey884: Diddums!!
@K_LFC8: Its called Covid Craig… Look it up.. The England-Germany game was suppose to be played in Dublin for example.
@CallumPOBrien: Scotland get battered everywhere they go 🏴
@richie75491968: Bitter we scotch fella 😂
@paulnotwoke: Does anyone from Scotland not fucking moan?
@TIMNOBLE6: Scotland played two games at Hampden, the other one at Wembley, and they still came bottom of the group. Fucking useless, just like Burley.
@clarke_clarkej8: Bitter little man
@Tommyesafc: @craigburley needs to get a grip, having a full blown meltdown on ESPN because @England will have played 6 out of 7 games @wembleystadium if we make it to the final, but @ScotlandNT could’ve played 4 games @HampdenPark if they were good enough. It’s what happens as a host muppet.
@DeepingRed: Maybe @craigburley is just being a bit #salty about #ENG here because home fixtures for #sco clearly didn’t give them any advantage to help offset them being rubbish!
@ArrowsmithLiam: All 4 nations in the semis played all there group games on home soil, why is it only England getting the hate? We topped our group warning the right to play the RO16 at Wembley had we finished 2nd or 3rd we’d of been away from home 🤷🏼♂️
@taff147: Unfortunately it’s coming home so they’ll just have to deal with it
@SteveColeman86: It’s a fair point – all the games at Hampden Park, as a random example, were famously won by the home team
@mikeydgray: May aswell hand Qatar the 2022 World Cup trophy right now so unfair!!
@tomfrost1: your tears taste delicious
@kiaaa_f: HAHAHAHA CRY MORE 🏴
@MikeJabBCFC: How did Scotland do in their 2 games at home?
@NigeWolves: Didn’t hear them moaning before the start of the tournament 🤷🏼♂️
@mikecafcbrown: Life ain’t fair get use to it… Quote everyone’s mum
@KevlarJB: Oh look, Craig Burley crying like the bitter Scottish bitch that he is. Probably still butthurt that Scotland finished bottom of the group. Weirdo.
@1892a1892: Is he forgetting Scotland played two of their three games at home and one down the road at Wembley. How did that work out again?!
@redpmac: Do you remember the World Cup in 2018? Russia played all of their games at home. Euro 2016? France played all of their games at home. No one cried about it then. Why now? Scotland played 2 out of 3 at home and one in England (the only one they got a result in) what’s the issue?
@JamesCarr02: Tournaments are usually played in a certain country so at least one team always has an advantage! Poor Scotland having to travel all the way to London for one game!
@Spuggyno2: Another bitter Scot, Craig Burley. Scotland played 2 games at Hampden and lost them both.
@GascoyneDr: Anyone seen Craig Burley moaning about England playing at Wembley? Many teams have staged a competition and gotten to the final. They don’t complain at them. Sour grapes are so sad – for him! Sad little man.
@DaveJB1962: What did he have to say about France playing every game at home at Euro 2016, Brazil & Russia planing every game at home in World Cups 2014 & 2018. Surprised he didn’t mention we also played all our games at home in 1966. 😖
@bfclee53: Snacks of jealousy to me his rant. Funnily enough we put our best performance in away in Rome. We can’t help where Uefa have pencilled us in to play.
You had 2 games in Scotland and one game in England and got one point.
I think you had more than enough home advantage to at least qualify…
But you didn’t…. pic.twitter.com/dSrWOK6fCp— Simon (@BeefyBaggie1965) July 5, 2021
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