After the draw against Ukraine in the last match of Group E of Euro 2024 on Wednesday evening, coach Domenico Tedesco was unhappy about the late arrival (1h15 before kick-off) of the Belgians at the Stuttgart Arena. According to the local police, the Belgians only have themselves to blame.
“I have never seen this before“, the coach fumed.From our hotel it took us over an hour to get to the stadium. We had a police escort, but they stopped at every traffic light and drove at 25 kilometres per hour. Since the postponement of the match was apparently not an option, I was only able to give a two-minute speech and we had to cut the warm-up short. So the preparation was poor. It’s unbelievable.“
German police responded to the allegations on Thursday, placing the blame on the Belgians themselves. “The Belgian team and UEFA were informed in advance by the police that the journey time should not be estimated at 40 minutes. The police suggested a journey time of 60 minutes, but this was rejected by the Belgian FA.“, said Frank Belz, police spokesman in Stuttgart.
“From the police point of view, nothing abnormal happened during the escort of the Belgian bus“, continued Mr. Belz, specifying that the bus had left only three minutes later than planned from the players’ hotel. “It had been communicated in advance that there would be a time difference between the arrivals of the two teams. To meet this requirement, the speed of the Belgian bus was temporarily reduced. The Belgians are also responsible for this late arrival by insisting on a journey time of 40 minutes.“
