Three kick-offs a day has provided football fans with plenty of entertainment from Euro 2024, but the 2pm slot is now redundant and there’s no 5pm action either until Tuesday
Euro 2024 is heating up as we’ve reached the final round of the group stage.
All 24 teams have played twice and soon they will become just 16, with the top two from Groups A-F automatically qualifying for the knockouts and the four best third-placed teams joining them. The third set of matches get underway today.
But there’ll be no 2pm or 5pm fixtures, as football fans have been accustomed to since the tournament kicked off on June 14. Both Switzerland vs Germany and Scotland vs Hungary will kick-off at 8pm UK time.
Nowadays it’s standard procedure for all the teams in a group to play their last match at the same time. But the reason behind it dates back over four decades ago.
The ‘Disgrace of Gijon’ occurred at the 1982 World Cup in Spain and saw a highly controversial result played out between West Germany and Austria. Algeria and Chile, the other countries in their group, had concluded their campaign the day before.
As a result, the neighbouring nations knew victory for the West Germans by one or two goals would see them both progress at the expense of Algeria due to goal difference. The only goal came after just 10 minutes.
West Germany would win 1-0 in a game which had almost come to a standstill in the second half, sparking fury from the Algerians who lodged a formal complaint. FIFA ruled that neither team had broken the rules.
But that incident, and a similar one in the same World Cup between Spain and Northern Ireland, saw FIFA revise the group system for future tournaments, and it’s been like that since the 1986 World Cup.
UEFA followed suit for the European Championships and the Champions League, and it’s now the widely accepted practice across world football to avoid the potential of match fixing.
There’s plenty to still to play for in Germany. The hosts were the first side to secure their spot in the round of 16, but they need a draw against Switzerland to top the group. Both Scotland and Hungary must win to have any chance of progressing.
Out of the other groups, just Spain and Portugal are guaranteed a spot in the knockouts. And Poland are the only team completely out of the running after successive defeats to the Netherlands and Austria.
Group B concludes on Monday evening before the 5pm kick-offs return on Tuesday for the finale of Group D. England will look to top Group C come the 8pm slot, with Groups E and F finishing up on Wednesday. That means there’ll be no more 2pm kick-offs.
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