Euro 2020: Wales-Switzerland, Live Scores, Schedule and TV

A couple of weeks ago, as the players who will represent Wales in this summer’s European soccer championships started to report for duty, their coaching staff instituted an unwritten rule: Try, if at all possible, not to mention the F word.

It is not that the word is expressly forbidden; more discouraged. “We haven’t used the term,” said Tony Strudwick, the team’s head of performance. “We are not talking about fatigue.”

Fatigue is always a factor in a major tournament. The European Championship and the Copa América and the World Cup arrive at the tail end of long and arduous club campaigns. They are contested by the most successful players, the ones employed by the finest club teams, who are rarely afforded more than a couple of weeks off before reporting for international duty.

But rarely has the shadow of exhaustion hung so low over a tournament as it does this summer, which arrives in a calendar compacted and condensed by the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. In most countries, what is ordinarily a 10-month season was this year crammed into only a little more than eight.

Many of the players involved in the Euros — and the concurrent Copa América, the South American championship — have effectively been playing nonstop since last June. Some are starting to feel it. Marcos Llorente, the hard-running Spain midfielder, confessed earlier this month that, in his final few games of the season with Atlético Madrid, he came off the field unable to run any further. “The brain wanted more, but the body said no,” he said.

FIFPro, the global players union, on Saturday released a letter in which it told the players that it would try to do something about the ever-increasing demands on their time, and their bodies.

“We have negotiated protocols for health and safety protections during the pandemic, and yet in some of the current tournaments the local conditions leave many athletes with great concerns,” the letter said.

“For years, players led a peaceful but vigorous charge for equality, compelling the industry to finally tackle discrimination with the required commitment, and yet today they are being discouraged not only by some fans, but also by governing bodies like the International Olympic Committee.

“It’s time for change. It’s time for the collective of players — through their unions — to sit in their rightful position in the game. In the coming months we will negotiate on your behalf with FIFA and other stakeholders for you to have more say as we push for a fairer and more reasonable schedule, more equitable conditions and greater safeguards and protections on and off the pitch.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/06/12/sports/euro-2020-live-scores/