Uefa confirms investigation into crowd chaos at Euro 2020 final, denting UK and Ireland bid to stage 2030 World Cup
European football chiefs have confirmed they are investigating the crowd chaos at the Euro 2020 final on Sunday.
Some fans without tickets managed to gain entry by overwhelming stewards, while mobile phone video footage showed fights inside Wembley, where England lost to Italy on penalties.
Governing body Uefa has now confirmed a probe into the scenes, which are likely to harm a proposed British and Irish bid to stage the 2030 World Cup.
“A Uefa ethics and disciplinary inspector has been appointed to conduct a disciplinary investigation into events involving supporters which occurred inside and around the stadium,” Uefa said.
The Football Association has already begun an investigation into the disturbances.
On a night when football was meant to be coming home, the scenes may instead have driven another major tournament away from these shores.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson stepped up efforts to bring the 2030 World Cup to the UK and Republic of Ireland in talks with top officials last week.
He hosted Aleksander Ceferin, the president of European football’s governing body Uefa, at Downing Street on Tuesday.
There had been hope that the government’s willingness to increase Wembley’s capacity to more than 60,000 for the latter stages, and waive quarantine rules for 2,500 Uefa guests for the Euro 2020 final, would curry favour with the governing body.
Disturbances before and during the Euro 2020 final
The UK also banked some political capital earlier in the year when fans and politicians opposed the European Super League breakaway plan.
Johnson pledged £2.8m towards starting the joint bid earlier this year.
The Football Association wants to be sure it has Uefa backing over a rival bid from Spain and Portugal before committing further.
They spent £21m on a bid for the 2018 World Cup that won just two of a possible 22 votes from world football chiefs Fifa.
But the disturbances before and during the Euro 2020 final have jeopardised hopes that the tournament would be the perfect advertisement for more matches in the UK.
Wembley officials intially denied that any fans without tickets had gained entry but later said that some had managed to breach stewards.
They said: “There was a breach of security and a small group of people got into the stadium.”
Wembley hosted eight games in the tournament, which was staged in 11 cities across Europe.