IAN LADYMAN: Forget the pound signs for once and make Euro 2028 a festival for the fans

• The UK and Ireland were officially confirmed as hosts of Euro 2028 this week 
• Organisers must ensure the tournament is affordable and brilliant for fans
• Listen to the latest episode of Mail Sport’s podcast ‘It’s All Kicking Off!’

English football should feel fortunate to be a joint host of the 2028 European Championships. Anyone who was at Wembley for the final of Euro 2020 would have been forgiven for thinking the national stadium should have been given some time off.

Instead it will host this season’s Champions League final and, it seems, the final and both semi-finals of the Euros in a little less than five years’ time.

I am not surprised. This is football and in football the major players tend to look after each other. But this, at the very least, is an opportunity. Whether we take it or not depends very much on what our priorities are. Already the smell of profit is in the air. Much of the talk that followed news of the UK and Ireland’s successful bid was of how much money the tournament may bring to the economy. An article in the Times put the figure at £2.6bn. I don’t know how they calculate these numbers and don’t much care. Football’s first instincts should be to serve those who come to watch. The national economy? Our sport already does its bit.

And so to 2028 and how it could be done differently if those who will build this tournament just decided they actually cared enough to try.

There has already been talk of affordable tickets. That would be a start. But the exploitation of supporters at big tournaments goes much deeper than that. They also suffer at the hands of hoteliers, airlines and every time they walk up to a stall at a stadium or fan park and ask for a beer and a sandwich.

The UK and Ireland were confirmed as the hosts of Euro 2028 by UEFA earlier this week

England should be thankful to host matches in 2028 after the disruption at the Euro 2020 final 

Tournament football is typically a rip-off for fans with prices increased for major events

Your browser does not support iframes.

In layman’s terms, tournament football is a disgusting rip-off and this fact has become so engrained in our consciousness and our very understanding of what these events are about that we have stopped complaining or even thinking about it.

‘£8 for a pint of crap beer?’

‘£7 for a hot dog?’

‘Yeah, the football’s on, innit’.

But it’s sad and it’s depressing and it’s wrong. I have been to seven World Cups and five European Championships. All but two have been for work. So it hasn’t cost me much. But I still know how much it does cost. I know what the hoteliers do when they see the football is in town. I know how much the tickets cost and how hard it can be to get them. And I know how baffling it can be to look at a tournament schedule and realise your team plays its first game in one city and its second in another. In Brazil at the 2014 World Cup, England’s second game wasn’t even played in the same time zone as its first.

England hasn’t hosted a tournament since 1996 but back then each of its four groups were based around a specific locality. So Italy, Germany, Russia and Czech Republic played all their games in Liverpool and Manchester. The Denmark, Turkey, Croatia and Portugal group alternated between Sheffield and Nottingham. It was simple and it worked and though it has not often been replicated, it could be this time. Given the parlous state of the UK’s transport infrastructure it would be a godsend. With that in mind, free local transport passes for those with match tickets should also be considered.

To achieve something different this time round – to make this tournament cheaper, more accessible and more inclusive – would take an almost unprecedented level of co-operation between the FAs of the five host countries, UEFA, local and national government and, indeed, big business.

It may be a pipe dream. It may be unattainable and this may transpire to be the most naïve column I have ever written. But at a time of environmental and financial uncertainty at home and across Europe, do we not owe it to ourselves, our sport and indeed the people who pay to watch it to at least start with an ambition and work from there?

Groups were played in a specific location at Euro 1996 and this could be replicated in 2028

FA chief executive Mark Bullingham, right, vowed to deliver an ‘affordable and brilliant’ event

Some will not wish to listen. Some will smell the money and say that it’s their turn. But somebody has to try to turn football’s priorities around at some point and it would be rather wonderful if for once it could be us.

Nobody else bid for the 2028 Euros. They were ours from the start. So we have nothing to congratulate ourselves on just yet. Over the next five years that could change. The clock is now ticking ahead of a football tournament that could be one to be genuinely proud of.

Mark Bullingham, the chief executive of the English FA, has already paid lip service to the matter. He has said Euro 2028 will be ‘affordable and brilliant for the fans’. From this day on, we will be watching…

McTominay’s salvage act exposes Man United’s problems 

The narrative of Scott McTominay’s winning double against Brentford for Manchester United was one of an academy graduate refusing to give up, a local lad taking inspiration from watching a film about David Beckham. It was a lovely story shot through with qualities to admire.

Fundamentally, though, this is also part of United’s current problems. United are supposed to have moved on from the Fred-McTominay midfield axis that was never quite good enough. Manager Erik Ten Hag has already sold one of them and wanted to sell the other. Yet here we are, eight games in, and McTominay is hauling United and their manager out of the cart.

United are supposed to have changed. But somehow they just can’t seem to. McTominay’s goals – as valuable as they were – are not really a cause for celebration. They’re a worry.

Scott McTominay rescued Manchester United by scoring two late goals to beat Brentford

Hazard has enjoyed a stellar career despite an early retirement 

I am not sad Eden Hazard has retired at the age of 32. 

He started at 16 with Lille and finished this week with more than 625 career appearances, 167 goals and almost as many assists. Ignore his age, that’s a career right there. 

Eden Hazard announced his retirement at the age of 32 after a successful 16-year career

Refs chief has pandered to the mob 

In explaining on TV the details of his referees’ decisions, PGMOL head Howard Webb has pandered to the mob. I don’t blame him because the mob’s voice is loud and never stops. Still, I wouldn’t have done it.

Now that he has, I was struck by one thing from his half hour with Michael Owen. Webb said a decision to send off Chelsea’s Malo Gusto after a challenge on Lucas Digne was correct. He then explained that Mateo Kovacic of Manchester City wasn’t dismissed for his tackle on Martin Odegaard because the angle of his foot and the point of contact on his opponents’ leg were different.

What Webb didn’t mention was that Gusto took the ball first whereas Kovacic was nowhere near it. And this is one of modern football’s problems. It has forgotten far too many basic principles.

PGMOL head Howard Webb appeared on television this week to explain refereeing decisions

Webb did not mention how Chelsea’s Malo Gusto took the ball in his challenge on Lucas Digne

Rooney’s boss is not my biggest fan 

Birmingham City’s chief executive Garry Cook has sacked a good manager and replaced him with a famous one and it remains to be seen how Wayne Rooney gets on.

But I can never think of Cook without remembering a short exchange at the top of a very tall building on a very hot day. Once the CEO at Manchester City, Cook didn’t care for me terribly. Nothing personal. Work stuff.

But having joined him at the opening of a rooftop football pitch City had installed at a school in New York in the summer of 2010, we found ourselves unavoidably eye to eye 10 stories up.

There was no lift at the Lexington Academy so we all trailed up the stairs. The temperatures were in the 90s. As I emerged panting into the sunlight, so did Cook.

‘Bloody hell,’ he smiled.

‘I have been waiting months to smack you on the nose and now I am too f*****g knackered to do it…’

*AND while we are at it, why not rehash an old Jasper Carrot joke?

‘I went to the Blues for the first game of the season and opened my golden goal ticket,’ he deadpanned.

‘It said “October”..’

Birmingham City’s chief Garry Cook replaced John Eustace with Wayne Rooney this week

Rooney will be tasked with leading Birmingham to promotion to the Premier League

IT’S ALL KICKING OFF! 

It’s All Kicking Off is an exciting new podcast from Mail Sport that promises a different take on Premier League football, launching with a preview show today and every week this season.

It is available on MailOnline, Mail+, YouTube , Apple Music and Spotify

Your browser does not support iframes.

Source: Read Full Article