Teams at Euro 2020 could face fines if their players move drinks provided by sponsors at news conferences.
On Monday, Portugal captain Christiano Ronaldo removed two bottles of Coca-Cola and encouraged people to drink water. The next day, France midfielder Paul Pogba, a practising Muslim, discreetly removed a bottle of Heineken beer. Italy’s Manuel Locatelli also replaced Coca-Cola with water on Wednesday.
On Thursday, tournament organisers said, “Uefa has reminded participating teams that partnerships are integral to the delivery of the tournament and to ensuring the development of football across Europe, including for youth and women.”
Uefa’s Euro 2020 tournament director Martin Kallen said players were contractually obliged “through their federation of the tournament regulations to follow”. However, he said he understood the actions of players who, like Pogba, did such things for religious reasons. Team have been reminded of their contractual regulations and Kallen said disciplinary action was “a possibility”.
“We are never fining players directly from the Uefa side, we will do this always through the participating national association and then they could look if they will go further to the player, but we are not going directly for the moment to the player. We have the regulations signed by the participating federations,” said Kallen.
