Italy as a great role model

By Sigi Heinrich

All's well that ends well. Sure, definitely for the winner Italy. The whole team can take the European Championship trophy with them to Rome with their heads held high. Deserved and accompanied with huge sympathy values. And otherwise? The title fights of the illustrious traveling company, which flew across Europe, even to Azerbaijan, to play their games, are over. The entourage can now stay on the ground. Good for the climate. The idea of such an event in many countries came from Michel Platini, who failed because of his financial greed on the way to a great official career. At first glance you thought: Great thing. There's something about that. It is not one country that is the host, but rather an entire continent.

However, a virus then raced across all borders at an almost unimaginable speed and at the very beginning of the pandemic, when there was at least one death in every village every day in some countries, the European Football Union (UEFA) would have had to pull the plug . But the Slovenian president of the association, Alexander Ceferin, insisted on the planned implementation because of his sponsors and even blackmailed various host cities by specifying the number of visitors. Anyone who didn't want to take part in this madness Monopoly was quickly booted out. It was easy because others jumped in immediately. And in the end there were more than 60.000 spectators in Wembley Stadium for the final, while in Munich, for example, more than 14.000 were never allowed into the Allianz Arena. Strictly controlled and subject to intensive requirements. All's well that ends well? There were corona cases after visits to the stadiums, but these numbers disappeared in the cheers of the fans. They literally went under and for a moment in these certainly unusual times one really had the impression that the pandemic had been defeated. Of course it isn't, we may still feel the after-effects of this four-week football party. Winner without a trophy Meanwhile, the analysts are dealing with the sporting impact of this European Championship and it remains to be seen that there is not just one winner with Italy, but many moral winners who did not receive a trophy, but who can also proudly return to everyday life in the league. Austria still offered football as good as it did during the European Championships. They have conquered the hearts of many football fans, as have the Swiss footballers, who even got the fans back home on their side with their performances, which wasn't easy. Because the “Nati”, as the country’s football team is called in Switzerland, was not particularly popular until these title fights. This has been corrected in an impressive way. The Danes around captain Simon Kjaer collected a lot of sympathy points. © APA/afp / LAURENCE GRIFFITHS

And then the Danes, who were possibly cheated out of a place in the final with an unwarranted penalty. They were responsible for the emotional high points, also because one of their most important players, Christian Eriksen, survived a cardiac arrest during the first game only thanks to the quick intervention of the emergency services. He is now having a pacemaker implanted. His teammates then moved even closer together and, with just one win in the preliminary round, made it to the round of 16, where they continued to impress. If you ignore the actually irresponsible circumstances, it was a great European Championship with fresh football, tactical subtleties but also a European Championship that did not produce any new stars. The team, see Italy, was the focus. The team spirit experienced a happy resurrection. DFB-Elf is the biggest loser Where there are winners, there are usually losers and one of the biggest in this category is the German team, which was on the verge of being eliminated in the preliminary round, as was the case at the last World Cup. The DFB team played a good game. One. The rest revealed a brutal oversight: the team has not developed any further since the World Cup three years ago, also because the coach was allowed to stay after the Russian debacle. Until the last air was actually used up. While Roberto Mancini breathed so much new life into Italian football in three years (Italy wasn't even at the World Cup in Russia) that his team even won these title fights, his colleague Joachim Löw quietly declared bankruptcy. In the last three years, three German coaches have won the Champions League (Klopp, Flick, Tuchel). Joachim Löw didn't cut a good figure with the DFB team. © APA/afp / FRANK AUGSTEIN

The crisis of the DFB selection was and is self-made. At the moment there is no longer even a properly elected president. In car racing you could say that the car has been driven beyond recognition. A Herculean task awaits the new national coach Hansi Flick. Maybe he'll call Roberto Mancini, who can certainly give him a few tips on how to get back to the summit after a deep trough of tears. Even an extremely successful one with a view of a great future.

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Italy as a great role model

Final whistle. There is no more extra time, no penalty shootouts. The 2020 European Football Championship is now history in 2021. In his summary, our columnist Sigi Heinrich takes another trip through football Europe and sees winners who didn't get a trophy and a big loser.

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