Euro 2020: Neuer to use Wembley crowd as motivation

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Hours before England’s clash with Germany on Tuesday afternoon – which is already operating at 50 percent capacity – German Chancellor Angela Merkel has objected to Britain hosting 60,000 fans at Wembley Stadium for the semi-finals and final of the football tournament.

Her intervention comes after she attempted to ban British tourists from travelling to European Union nations due to the infectious coronavirus strain currently spreading across the UK.

German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer urged Prime Minister Boris Johnson to not be “irresponsible for tens of thousands to gather in close proximity”.

He said Mr Johnson should follow Munich’s lead, which only allowed 20 percent capacity in stadiums to watch fixtures.

This would mean only 18,000 football fans would be allowed inside Wembley.

Earlier today, top Eurocrat Margaritas Schinas called for Uefa to rethink plans for Britain to host the Euro 2020 semi-finals and final.

Mr Schinas told the European Parliament he could not “personally” see the sense of the semi-finals on July 6 and 7 and the July 11 final being hosted in London.

He said: “I want to share my doubts about the possibility of organising the final and semi-finals at Wembley, in a packed stadium, at a time that the United Kingdom itself is limiting its citizens’ travel to the European Union.

“I think Uefa needs to carefully analyse this decision… a decision that needs to be taken with full knowledge of the facts.”

Last week, Ms Merkel said she wants better coordination to fight the spread of the highly transmissible Delta variant, first identified in India, that is quickly sweeping throughout the UK.

She told the Bundestag lower house of parliament: “In our country, if you come from Great Britain, you have to go into quarantine – and that’s not the case in every European country, and that’s what I would like to see.”

In the UK, nearly half of all Britons are fully vaccinated but in Germany just 36 percent are double-jabbed.

All those Britons entering Germany currently face a 14-day quarantine.

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Ms Merkel previously raged at Portugal for allowing British tourists entry without the need to quarantine.

Yesterday, both Portugal and Malta announced new quarantine-on-arrival rules for British holidaymakers.

However, they exempted those who have received both doses of a coronavirus vaccine.

In France, President Emmanuel Macron has allowed those with two vaccine doses in the UK to enter the country without going into isolation.

Both Spain and Greece said they would not require Britons to be fully vaccinated but would be welcome if they have proof of a negative Covid test.

Greek tourism minister Harry Theoharis said: “There is no tightening of the restrictions for the time being.”

Speaking alongside European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at a press conference, Ms Merkel warned the bloc’s failure to agree to a joint travel policy on coronavirus was starting to “backfire”.

She said: “What I regret is that we have not yet been able to achieve a uniform behaviour among the member states in terms of travel restrictions.

“That is backfiring.

“We now have a situation in Portugal that could perhaps have been avoided, and that’s why we have to work even harder on this.

“We’ve made pretty good progress in recent months, but we’re not yet where I would like the European Union to be.”

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