European soccer’s governing body has insisted that there are “no plans to play matches at Euro 2016 behind closed doors,” according to Goal.com. The idea came following the terror attack on Brussels on Tuesday as well as the attack in Paris in November, and UEFA said that it is “working on contingency plans and on multiple scenarios around crisis situations,” according to Goal.
UEFA executive committee vice-chairman Giancarlo Abete told Radio 24, via Goal, “Euro 2016 is the kind of event we can’t delay or postpone. We can’t exclude the possibility of playing behind closed doors as we cannot exclude terrorism. If we talked about potentially cancellable games such as a friendly or a competitive match that could be moved to another date, obviously this would not be the case.”
UEFA also released the following statement:
“We are confident that all security measures will be in place for a safe and festive Euro and therefore there are no plans to play matches behind closed doors.
However, we are nevertheless working on contingency plans and on multiple scenarios around crisis situations since we take the security of all participants [players, fans, etc] very seriously.”
The Euro 2016 final is slated for July 10 at Stade de France, where terrorists had planned an attack in November of 2015 the night France played Germany. Over 130 people were killed in the attacks that were planned across Paris.
The combination of the attacks on Paris and Brussels were the clear motivating factor in suggesting that there could be a closed stadium in a future match.
Trying to figure out a plan, the Belgium-Portugal friendly that was set to be played on March 29 in Brussels was initially believed to be cancelled, but instead was moved to Portugal, according to Grant Wahl:
Belgium-Portugal friendly on March 29 moved from Brussels to Portugal. Makes sense. Interviewed Marouane Fellaini for this week's pod.
— Grant Wahl (@GrantWahl) March 23, 2016
“We are talking about events which have already had a negative impact on the Euros because the perception of risk is already there and there is less excitement about getting involved from those who wanted to join in a joyous mood,” Abete added.
“But we are talking about games which are staged for June, whereas today we are going through a very urgent emergency.”
It doesn’t appear that there will be closed door Euro 2016 matches, but that could certainly change.
[Goal]