European Football Championships on channels 14.6.–14.7. Live broadcast of the final match between Spain and England live on TV2 and Areena on Sunday at 21:00. Go to the match website from this link.
The European football championships in Germany have not seen widespread violence like the 2016 French championships, for example. However, security concerns and the behavior of the spectators have become topics of conversation due to the brawls that have taken place in the stadiums.
A constant problem in particular has been the spectators rushing from the stands to the field, many of whom have been remarkably young.
In Portugal’s first group match, the stands rushed onto the field at least seven times. The attackers wanted to be able to take a picture Cristiano Ronaldo with.
Portugal head coach Roberto Martinez condemned the hosting of the supporters and stated that “today we were lucky that their goals were harmless”.
– You have to remember that now we’re really just trying to take a picture. So what if there is something else involved? That’s the possibility we’re talking about. There is always an element that what if a knife comes out, asked Urheilu’s expert Markus Halsti.
In the first semi-final match, spectators flocked to the field both during and after the match.
– Shockingly stupid behavior, summed up the frustrated expert in ‘s commentary Antti Pohja.
All kinds of stuff has also flown onto the field: especially beer mugs, but also, for example, shoes and a coin.
Even such a strange threat situation was seen that armed police officers chased the man from the roof structures of the stadium.
The Finnish police are not worried
How have the problems of the tournament looked in the eyes of Finnish experts?
– Nasty stuff. There have always been these, such mild phenomena. Certainly not to such a large extent, says the inspector of the Helsinki police Johanna Sinivuori.
Sinivuori is also wondering if the problems have now also been reported more often than usual.
Sinivuori knows football stadiums and security arrangements, as he is the head of the NFIP function (National Football Information Point) in Finland.
Sinivuori has been involved in the operational activities of several international matches. He says that he watched the European Championships in Germany carefully.
When a spectator rushes onto the field, the TV picture usually cuts to another place. Sinivuori says that this is important preventive work, because troublemakers do not get visibility.
Social media is indeed one of the background factors of the problem, when pranksters try to get the most spectacular pictures and videos for the sake of social media popularity.
Sinivuori doesn’t have exact statistics about Germany’s problems at the European Championships, but he isn’t worried either.
Have there been any shortcomings in the arrangements or supervision? Could something be done better?
– Hard to say. Yes, there are quite massive rock walls between the supporters and the field. It’s really hard to stop a single field rusher.
What about throwing things and stuff like that? What could be done?
– Of course, if we get rid of everything from people. It’s impossible. Selling beer is of course one thing. If it wasn’t sold, the pints wouldn’t fly, but then maybe the other stuff would fly.
In some European fields, protective nets have been seen between the spectators and the field.
– It contradicts the fact that we want to guarantee the best possible viewing experience.
Uefa has also not restricted the sale of beer in EC stadiums. One reason is of course money. Sinivuori also does not support a ban, whereby pints should not be taken into the stands.
It is difficult to give an unequivocal verdict on the success of the arrangements from Finland, but Sinivuori does not criticize based on what he has seen.
– They have probably succeeded quite well. Such matches have extremely precise criteria. These are individual cases that come to our attention. Judging from the pictures at least, there are enough security guards and the stands are well manned.
Will there be changes to Huuhkajie’s match arrangements?
Head of the event function of the Finnish Football Association Antti Vanhala says that it has been tiring to watch the minor events of the Games.
– The activity causes dangerous situations for players, spectators and others in the stadium. It is also unfortunate that security incidents partially take attention away from all the happy things.
After the opening group game between Portugal and Turkey, Uefa said it would tighten security measures. More precisely, it did not open measures.
In addition, Uefa has repeatedly reminded that every intrusion into the field leads to a ban from the tournament and a criminal report. It hasn’t changed the big picture.
Even though it is very difficult to completely prevent hostilities on the field, in Vanhala’s opinion, we should not be content with the fact that the problem just exists.
– You should not settle for anything. The field belongs to the players and the spectators have no business there. During the match, the number of orderlies and their activities play a key role.
– It would also be good to think about whether the sanctions for those rushing onto the field are sufficient.
Even Vanhalak is of the opinion that, in principle, allowing pints in the stands is a good thing and part of functioning public services. He believes that UEFA still has a place for reflection.
– Of course, it’s a pity, especially from the point of view of those supporters who would like to enjoy drinks in the stands in a relevant way. It remains to be seen whether the matter will be reacted to by changes in the safety regulations and whether it will affect the regulations in, for example, Huuhkaji’s future international matches.
Huhkaki’s match arrangements are based on the regulations of Uefa and local authorities. Mild effects have been rare. The Supporters of the Finnish National Team, or SMJK, also receive praise from Vanhala.
– We have had a discussion about throwing pints in good agreement with SMJK already a year ago, and we concluded that it does not belong to the Finnish supporter culture. The supporters themselves have intervened in this activity in the stands and that’s fine.
The races are followed moment by moment in the app and on ‘s website in this article.