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EUROPEADA Talk: the minority football teams are already looking forward to 2022

The organisers of the EUROPEADA took the opportunity to have a special meeting of the teams involved in the European Football Championship of minorities on the date the EUROPEADA was supposed to kick off in 2021. On Saturday, the 19th of June 2021, delegation leaders met in an online training to discuss their teams’ situation and get answers to their questions about EUROPEADA.

After a welcome address by FUEN Vice President Vladimir Ham, the location of the event hosted by the Slovenes in Austria was presented. Carinthia still looks like the place to be in June 2022!

Marko Loibnegger, from the side of the hosts of the Europeada 2022, announced that until now not one team out of the 24 mens and 7 womens teams enlisted for the 2020 event has withdrawn from the tournament. A new draw for th groups would only be necessary if a team can not attend the event in 2022.

He pointed out that the organisers did not want a reduced EUROPEADA without fans and side events, and this is the main reason the event was postponed for the second time, but still, some changes might be possible for 2022 for the safety of all participants. The UEFA has already shown that it is possible to have fans at the games, and the organisers are hopeful that fans will be able to enjoy the EUROPEADA games on location. The venues of the event have not changed.

Regarding the rules of the tournament, it was announced that a team can enlist 22 players in a delegation of maximum 30 persons. During a match, a team is entitled to have five substitutions. Media attention will be split between all teams, all of them will be part of the coverage of games.

In the discussion rounds, the delegation leaders presented their teams and the challenges they had to face during the pandemic. It turned out that some of the teams had only recently started to train and play again, and they agreed that it would have been a stretch to organise the EUROPEADA this year, with teams that were not allowed to play for an extended period of time. All teams are looking forward to meet in June 2022.

FUEN Secretary General Éva Pénzes reiterated that FUEN strongly assumes that the EUROPEADA will happen in Carinthia next year. The EUROPEADA is not only about football, but about exchange, networking and coming together – she said.

 

Background information:
EUROPEADA is a major European event that connects the fair competition and the enthusiasm for a sporting event with the interests of the autochthonous national minorities. The focus is on the encounter, the exchange of minorities and the public promotion. FUEN is the organiser of the EUROPEADA.
After the three successful European football championships of the autochthonous national minorities, hosted by the Romansh people in Grisons/Switzerland in 2008, the Lusatian Sorbs in Germany in 2012 and the German-speaking South Tyroleans and the Ladins in South Tyrol in Italy in 2016, the 4th EUROPEADA will take place in Carinthia/ Koroška hosted by the Carinthian Slovenes in 2022.

More information on the Europeada at the official website: www.europeada.eu

 

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