Former FIFA vice-president Jim Boyce believes the incidents at the Euro 2020 final will hurt the England and Ireland World Cup bid.
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The Euro 2020 final between England and Italy will be remembered not only for a thrilling match but also, unfortunately, the fan violence that followed. The violence saw England fans attack each other, Italian fans and even hurl abuse at the players. In fact, the carnage caused led to UEFA opening an investigation into matters. However, it did so much more than just tarnish the Euros.
England and Ireland are launching a joint bid for the 2030 World Cup, with the hosts to be decided in 2024. And according to former FIFA vice-president Jim Boyce, the incidents would have hurt the bid.
He said there is “no doubt” the behaviour of some fans at the game “will make people think about where the World Cup is awarded”.
“People at FIFA will obviously take a dim view of what happened. First of all, we had the laser incident in the semi-final at Wembley,” said Boyce.
“We then had the disgraceful booing of the national anthems and then we had the morons running amok trying to get into the stadium on the night of the final.
“So obviously it does not do English football or the FA any good what happened.
“I sincerely hope it will not damage the bid. England have the stadiums and they have the facilities in the UK to host this bid along with Ireland.”
Boyce would praise the England players, many of whom are doing good work for communities off the pitch. As a result, English football has gained goodwill from many. However, Boyce said fan rowdiness takes away from that.
“I think the behaviour of some people off the pitch has damaged it (good work of English players) quite severely.”
He added that hooliganism happens in other countries too but that in England’s case, their reputation precedes them.
“It’s happened in other countries as well to be fair but it’s not the first time hooligans have ruined the reputation of English football.
“It’s happened before and we thought we’d got away from those days but there are people who want to bring the game people love back into disrepute.”
