Mannschaft’s Road to the 2020 Football Finale

Source: Deutcher Fussball-Bund on www.dfb.de

by Laura Lai/ Comment

Long time, no see! Whom? My favourite football team – Die Mannschaft. Each fan considers its team as the firm favourite to win the cup. And I am no exception. This time it is about the UEFA Football Championship 2020.

The Union of European Football Association (UEFA) is a football administration with mostly European members, but not only. Countries such as Azerbaijan, Israel, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkey are among its members situated on another continent than Europe. It was created in June 15^th, 1954 in Basel, but its headquarters is nowadays in Nyon (Switzerland). In 2019 UEFA turns 65 years old. And this is an excellent reason to celebrate!

The party venue is… in 12 locations on two continents: Amsterdam, Baku, Bilbao, Bucharest, Budapest, Copenhagen, Dublin, Glasgow, London, Munich, Rome and Sankt Petersburg. The party starts on June 12^th in Rome and it will end on July 12^th, 2019 in London.

        All football teams are in the qualification phase. My Mannschaft is in Group C (Belorussia, Estonia, Germany, Northern Ireland and The Netherlands). After this phase there will be only 24 football teams that will be divided in six groups (from Group A to F). If after this qualification phase, my Mannschaft will be in Group A, it will play in Rome (Italy) and in Baku (Azerbaijan).

            Then there will be 16 football teams left. If my Mannschaft wins the Group A, it will play its first eliminatory game in London (UK) on June 27^th. When there will be only 4 football teams left, my Mannschaft will need to play the quarter-finals either in Sankt Petersburg (Russia), Munich (Germany) or back to Baku (Azerbaijan), or back to Rome (Italy).

            The semi-finals and the finals will be played in London. What a relief that these parties will be in one place! Just that the participant teams will need to come to London from either Russia, Germany, Azerbaijan or Italy.

A celebration party whose venue is in 12 places on two continents is definitely an original idea. But is it a good idea to travel in such a short time on two continents on slightly different time zones (different temperatures, too) from North to South, and from West to East? I wonder if this is the type of party, to which an invited guest is allowed to decline the invitation… .

There is one thing I am sure about: All football teams will be doing a lot of travelling in this time period. Let us still hope that the participant football teams to the UEFA Football Championship in 2020 will still be able to impress all of us with their physical shape, well training, great results and outstanding games. And that so will my Mannschaft!