European football in the spotlight

With the painful memory of the November attacks in Paris, which killed 130 people, France is now facing new security challenges throughout the European Football Championship it is hosting this month.

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Bogdan Matei, 13.06.2016, 13:55

Sports journalists and the millions of fans in Europe have never seen such tension revolving around the opening of a European football championship as they have in France. The chaos created by Russian and English fans in Marseille, local crime and the incidents in Nice, clashes between German and Ukrainian fans in Lille are signaling major flaws in the French authorities security system. “When you cant deal with the hooligans in the street, how can your truly combat terrorism?, the Gazeta Sporturilor daily writes. The newspaper also writes: “fans can bring virtually anything into the stadium, even a tank, while the Russians most likely were carrying flare guns.

UEFA, the administrative body for association football in Europe, has launched an investigation into the outbursts of violence at the end of the match pitting England against Russia, and has warned that if English and Russian fans resort to violence again, the two teams may be kicked out of the tournament.

On the other hand, trade unions are forcing the hand of a Government that already finds itself against the wall. Pilots with the national airliner Air France on Saturday went on strike, calling on the Government to scrap the new labour law that makes it easier to fire and hire people. The strike action has disrupted transport plans for football fans. The protest reflects an escalation of tensions within France. The garbage removal companies are on strike until Wednesday, and rail traffic has just resumed after a nine-day strike. In late May filling stations were empty, due to a protest of refinery workers.

Regardless of tensions outside the pitch, football fixtures at EURO 2016 carried on as scheduled. On Saturday, Romania played in the opening match against the host country, France, losing 2-1. Cheered by 20,000 Romanian fans, Romanias team had a good start, and was close to scoring an early goal 3 minutes into the game. For the next hour Romania defended well against the French team, seen as favourite to win. Giroud scored the first goal on 57 minutes, but Stancu came with the equalizer 8 minutes later, scoring from a penalty kick. Payet scored the winning goal 1 minute from full time, shattering Romanias hopes for a draw.

Unlucky is the word the Romanian press used to describe Romanian footballers after the match against France. In the other fixture in Group A, also on Saturday, Switzerland defeated Albania 1-nil. The next games will be played on Wednesday, when France is playing Albania and Romania goes up against Switzerland.