Was Italy disqualified from Euro 2020 for fielding ineligible player? Fact Check

ByCraig Haley

A viral post on social media claims that Italy was disqualified from the Euro 2020 championships for fielding an ineligible player, and as such the winners of the Euro 2020 were the losing finalists, England.

FALSE

The viral post is below.

UEFA officials have noticed that Italy used a player that was yellow carded two games ago. He should have missed the last two games.
UEFA officials could disqualify Italy for euro 2020, meaning England could become euro champions.
The news is official and can be checked on the BBC website. It was brought to the attention of the chairman of the UEFA only 25 minutes ago.

The post was most likely intended as a joke, thus the reference to the popular Carlsberg slogan towards its end, but as with many online jokes, many have taken the claims at face value.

The post is, of course, false. No such story appears on the BBC news website. The claim in the message that an Italy player was yellow carded two games ago and thus should have not been eligible to play in the final is false and does not stand up to the actual rules of the competition.


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A single yellow card does not result in any match ban, and even if that player had received two yellow cards in two games (which would normally result in a one match ban) such cards are effectively “wiped” after the quarter final stages, and as such no player would have to serve a ban going into the final.

From the UEFA website –

Does this mean a player cannot be banned for the final as a result of two yellow cards picked up during the course of the final tournament?
Correct. The slate was wiped clean after the quarter-finals, meaning a player can only be suspended for the final if they receive a red card in the semi-finals.

As such we rank this claim as false.

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