Soooo you’re saying UEFA knew England will play on the final and scheduled the game at a time to accommodate the Australians and Kiwis who support England?
@mods, where’s the thread with the jokes, this is a stunning one!
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Looks like my crystal ball needs a tune-up! While UEFA in Nyon didn’t schedule the final specifically for English fans ‘down under,’ the 9:00 PM slot does help accommodate viewers across various time zones, including Australia and New Zealand. Just imagine if they did have that kind of foresight, now that would be a plot twist! I wasn’t able to watch many matches, maybe 3 or 4 in their entirety, but nonetheless, cheers to the Euro championship bringing everyone together, no matter where they live!
It was a devious ploy from UEFA to favour the Southern Europeans who typically wake around noon and have dinner before midnight. Meanwhile Switzerland is disadvantaged because most of them are in bed by 9pm, their little batteries exhausted by a day of highly efficient labour.
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Wait, even those who live in Israel? Are you sure???
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Might be something to do with the Wimbledon final, too. 18H might be cutting it a bit fine especially with most TV channels ramping up the footie chatter from about 17H.
Bearing in mind Sunday’s final is a clash between two of the most passionate footballing nations in Europe; where one might go so far as to say England & Spain have developed an arch enemies status, that’s even surpassed old rivalries ( eg the rivalry that used to apply to Germany & before that West Germany with England fans, in days of yore ) now it’s Spain when it comes to beating the other side in any match let alone the European Championship finals.
I’m sure Brit’s going on holiday to Spain, regard themselves as going behind enemy lines during the Euro football championships. 
Lol
In fact come to think of it, didn’t I read somewhere in the papers that tourists in Spain have been fired upon by water pistols ! !
I think they simply set the matches times at 3pm, 6pm and 9pm in the early stage and they have been maintained throughout the tournament, surely for TV broadcasting reasons, even in the final stages when there is only one match per day.
I agree that 9pm is a bit too late for a Sunday, but in mid-southern countries 6pm in summer simply does not work. I know they play in Berlin, I mean for the TV audience too.
If the final was played on Saturday, the team who played the semi on Wednesday would complain about having not enough recovery time. Playing both semis the same day is more fair for that, but not best for TV. Pushing both of them one day earlier would force to push QF and the whole schedule one day earlier as well, and the current calendar can be deemed better overall (it started on a Friday, QF were Friday and Saturday, etc.)
Well England enters tonight’s Euro’s final as ‘the underdogs’ against Spain, so what’s the likelihood of Gareth Southgate and the England team ending 58 years of hurt for the long suffering England fans. ?
Unfortunately Trump’s assassination attempt will steal the limelight from Euro’s final…but yeah, let the better team win. Who knows, each one has their chances.
If England clinches the Euro championship tonight, I bet Southgate will be more than happy to guide the Spaniards to the correct gate at the airport for their southbound flight back to Spain (he’s an expert now; he already did the same for the Swiss). On a serious note, so far during this tournament, England has always managed to wriggle out of sticky situations or avoid tumbling into the abyss, unless the Spanish players pull some unconventional tricks. If I remember correctly, one Spanish player got sent off after turning into a rugby player against the Germans!
I’m watching it right now. Another Spaniard playing - against Djoko. The British fans behaved very unfairly during his match against Rune, maybe they’ll “motivate” him again…Alcaraz is super intelligent though, he has a solution for everything Nole is trying to do.
It would be a surprise to see too many goals in the 90 minutes in this final.
Commiserations to England but Spain were the better team on the day and throughout the entire tournament, so congrats to them.
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Wonder whether the new PM, Sir Keir Starmer will declare a national day of mourning for those living in England, with England flags lowered to half-mast today ???
Well he ruled out a public holiday if they won so…
Why would he? Given the performance and quality of the English team, reaching the final was an absolutely incredible thing.
I actually thought they played well last night? In general I don’t dislike any teams or sportsmen, maybe it’s the fans that sometimes annoy me. 
But the British football fans behaved well during this championship.
Edit: and yes, Spain deserved to win, fully agree on this one. Their team too was very young. They have a player who turned 17! a couple of days ago (meaning Yamal played as a 16 y.o. during such an important championship, I find this amazing), and who is extremely talented…the future belongs to this generation. So congrats, Spain!
Maybe. I thought this FT article encapsulates it best.
A fluent Spain mostly dominated an apparently planless England, exactly as predicted