EXCITEMENT is palpable as Euro 2020 gets underway a year behind schedule.
The tournament was postponed due to Covid last summer but has retained its original name despite being played in 2021.
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Why is Euro 2020 called Euro 2020?
The official name of the competition is the 2020 Uefa European Football Championship.
However, this is typically shortened to Euro 2020 for marketing purposes.
Uefa stated that this was to maintain the original vision for the tournament – to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the European Football Championship.
As part of this vision, the competition is being played in eleven European cities rather than being confined to one host nation.
A Uefa statement issued in April 2020 read: “Following the postponement of Uefa Euro 2020 to the summer of 2021, and after a thorough internal review as well as several discussions with partners, the Uefa Executive Committee has decided that the tournament will still be known as Uefa Euro 2020.
“This decision allows Uefa to keep the original vision of the tournament, which was set to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the European Football Championship (1960–2020).
“It will furthermore serve as a reminder of how the whole football family came together to respond to the extraordinary circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic, and of the difficult times that Europe, and the world, had to go through in 2020.
“This choice is in line with UEFA’s commitment to make UEFA EURO 2020 sustainable and not to generate additional amounts of waste.
“A lot of branded material had already been produced by the time of the tournament’s postponement. A name change for the event would have meant the destruction and reproduction of such items.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
