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France ‘shouldn’t host Euro 2016’
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FRENCH football icon Just Fontaine has said France should not host the European Championships next year after the Paris terrorist attacks.
The 82-year-old, who scored a record 13 goals in six games at the 1958 World Cup, was at the Stade de France on Friday and witnessed the panic after three suicide bombers staged an attack.
“It breaks my heart to say this, because I have been looking forward to the European Championships, but I think France should give up the idea of hosting it,” Fontaine told German daily Die Welt. “Every other country could host the championships, just not us.
“I greatly fear that there will be a repeat of black Friday.”
Three explosions were heard outside the Stade de France national stadium during the first half of the friendly between France and Germany. Three suicide bombers killed themselves along with one bystander. The attacks across Paris claimed 129 lives in all.
France is due to host the European championships at 10 stadiums across the country between June 10 and July 10, with the final at the Stade de France.
French organizers insist the event should go ahead and that extra safety measures will be taken. But Fontaine said: “I think we can’t guarantee the security needed for such a big event, it is simply too dangerous.
“Do you think that people will ever be able to go to the Stade de France again?”
Fontaine said he was pleased that France will go ahead with a friendly against England at London’s Wembley today.
“I can only support the game in England,” said Fontaine. “The murderers must not be allowed to believe that they could win this war against us.”
But Germany’s head coach Joachim Loew, who steered die Mannschaft to the 2014 World Cup title in Brazil, disagreed with Fontaine.
“I’m sure the European Championships will be held in France and the government will do everything to guarantee maximum safety,” said Loew.
“It makes little sense to discuss another country hosting the event. What happened could have happened anywhere.”
Meanwhile, today the Wembley Arch will be illuminated in the red, white and blue of the French flag. The French motto, “Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite” will be projected onto the front of the stadium. The words of “La Marseillaise,” France’s national anthem, will be shown on giant screens so that England fans can sing along with their French counterparts.
The match between England and France — a game that was supposed to serve as a valuable warm-up ahead of Euro 2o16 — has been transformed into a poignant act of defiance, solidarity and sporting unity.
For the French Football Federation, the show must go on.
“France is standing,” FFF president Noel Le Graet said. “Football also.”
England’s Football Association left the decision over whether the game should go ahead entirely in the hands of French soccer officials.
“The match will be a serious occasion,” England coach Roy Hodgson said, “but one that shows that the football world is united against those atrocities.”
France coach Didier Deschamps offered his players the chance to withdraw from the game, but none have.
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