The teams are living in secure ‘bubbles’ in their hotel and training facilities which they are only allowed to leave with explicit permission and they are warned against meeting people from outside their team and staff. Inside the hotels, the players are being given private routes to their own dining areas where the food will be served by club designated staff.
Secure environment: With no fans to worry about, the Portuguese police are focused more on helping maintain the secure environment for the participants than the threat of hooliganism. “The operation is focused on the stadiums, the hotels, and training locations,” Luis Elias of the PSP police force told a news conference on Tuesday. “We will be paying particular attention to preventing situations of public disorder and other types of incidents like intrusions in the places where competitions are happening, training locations or where players are resting,” he added. There is of course, the chance that some fans of teams who reach the final might decide to celebrate that occasion in Portugal rather than sat at home in front of the television. However, for most supporters, the sofa is their most likely venue for a bumper two weeks of football. And television is, of course, the main reason why organisers UEFA have gone to such lengths to complete their season. Having already lost the Euro 2020 tournament for national teams, which has been postponed to 2021, UEFA could ill-afford to be faced with massive rebates from its broadcast partners if its club competitions failed to finish.
With one-off quarter-final and semi-final games leading up to the final, all to be decided by extra-time and penalties if needed, the drama should make up for the loss of two-legged home and away ties. UEFA’s second-tier competition, the Europa League, is being held in similar fashion in Germany, playing on the rest days in the Champions League and providing broadcasters with a daily diet of games. The Champions League action gets under way on Wednesday with Paris St Germain against Italian club Atalanta and the stand-out quarter-final fixture sees Bayern Munich face Barcelona on Friday.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday Islamic countries should form an alliance against what…
A rare snake species known as the blunt-nosed viper and other reptiles, especially the geico…
As Pakistan prepares to celebrate the birthday of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) on September…
PCB Director High-Performance, Tournament Director Champions One Day Cup Nadeem Khan has said that the…
The Health experts addressing a symposium on Saturday stressed lifestyle changes to prevent diabetes which…
Pakistan's combined contingent is all set to participate in the 5th World Nomad Games, scheduled…
Leave a Comment