At halftime on Wednesday UEFA threw open the gates to the Europa League final to avoid the spectacle of a half-empty stadium but their president says he has no regrets about holding the game in Baku.
Although UEFA reportedly now have ‘human rights criteria’ in place for selecting their venues, these weren’t in operation two years ago when the final was awarded to Baku. Read that again – in 2017 UEFA had NO criteria in place for selecting venues based on the human rights record of the country.
Of course, UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin wouldn’t confirm if these new regulations would rule Baku out of future games, but he did say the organisation had no regrets over its choice.
Asked if it was a mistake to hold the final in Baku, Ceferin said, “I don’t think so. Football is also passion and development.
“You should see how people were that we brought [the final] there. Yeah, the stadium was not full. But it was the third biggest attendance in the history of the Europa League [finals], 51,370.
Baku stadium's doors were opened midway through the Europa League final in attempt to avoid embarrassment of half-empty standshttps://t.co/3sPeH8PcJf
— Indy Football (@IndyFootball) May 31, 2019
“We have a duty to develop football everywhere. Not just in big countries. And we couldn’t know who will qualify.”
Of course, this isn’t true at all.
They don’t develop football ‘everywhere’. Right now I’m writing this from Northern Ireland, a country that has no oil and where football has been left to rot for decades.
There are many countries that have a history of playing football but have less money with which to grease the ‘wheels of progress’ so will never get a shot at hosting a major final or tournament.