Why are there no matches for third place in the European Championship?

2024-06-28 22:48 © AP

The European Football Championship has reached its most interesting phase - the knockout stage.

Before the crucial stage of the tournament, some fans started to wonder why, unlike the World Cup, there are no matches for the third place in the Old Continent's championship.

According to "talkSport", the bronze match has not been played since the 1980 tournament in Italy.

At that time, the hosts defeated Czechoslovakia 9:8 after an 11-meter penalty shootout (the match ended 1:1).

Despite the fact that the Italians played in an important match, there were not many spectators in the stadium, and the television broadcast also did not attract a large audience of fans.

It was precisely because of that match that UEFA decided that teams losing in the semifinals should not bother anymore and in the last 10 championships, matches for the third place were not organized.