Off the pitch, OTP Bank CEO/Hungarian Soccer Federation (MLSz) president Sándor Csanyi announced yesterday that his association would be submitting a bid to host the 2020 UEFA European Football Championship tournament; Prime Minister Viktor Orbán endorsed the move at a joint press conference with UEFA president Michel Platini.
Proposed as a venue for the match or matches was Ferenc Puskas Stadium in Budapest. Orbán stated that the stadium would be undergoing revitalization before 2016, and Csanyi promised a maximum seating capacity of 65,000. Under a new format for the tournament, up to 13 venues will be chosen to host matches in three rounds of play.
Elsewhere, the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR) is set to lodge a formal complaint with governing body FIFA due to “widespread anti-Hungarian sentiment” to which fans were submitted during last week’s World Cup qualifying match in Bucharest.
UDMR protests the “aggressive tactics” used by law enforcement to disperse Hungarians from Bucharest streets. Romania-based Jurnalul Național quoted the complaint as reading in part that “Lately, it’s become normal that at football matches, it is chanted that Hungarians should leave the country.”
Arrests of Hungarian fans were reported before the Bucharest match in incidents that left at least seven injured, including two law-enforcement officers.
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