Stuttgart (dpa)
The police in the German city of Stuttgart responded to the criticism directed at them by Dominique Tedesco, the coach of the Belgian national football team, and stated that the Belgians were responsible for their late arrival to their match in the European Championship “Euro 2024” against the Ukrainian national team.
Frank Belz, the official police spokesman, told the newspapers Stuttgart Nachrichten and Stuttgart Zeitung: “The police informed the Belgian national team and the European Football Association (UEFA) in advance that 40 minutes is not enough to get from the team’s residence to the stadium. The police indicated that the distance takes 60 minutes. But this was rejected by the Belgian Football Association.
Tedesco complained, after the match, about the difficult flight conditions.
Tedesco said after his team qualified for the round of 16: “It took us an hour to come from the hotel headquarters, accompanied by the police. The road was completely empty, but they slowed the speed to 20-25 kilometers per hour. “All the traffic lights were red. I only had two minutes to have a preparatory conversation. We had to reduce the warm-up time. This is unbelievable.”
From the police’s point of view, Bales said: “Nothing unusual happened while we were accompanying the Belgian team bus,” noting that the bus left the hotel three minutes late.
He explained that the speed of the bus must be temporarily reduced, to respect the required time difference between the arrival of the two teams participating in the match.
He stressed that the Belgians prepared for the late arrival themselves by insisting that the flight time took only 40 minutes.
#Stuttgart #police #respond #criticism #Belgium #coach