The Stuttgart police have responded to criticism from Belgium coach Domenico Tedesco.
After the goalless draw with Ukraine on Wednesday at the end of the group stage of Euro 2024, Tedesco complained about the difficult conditions of the trip.
Tedesco said after his team qualified for the round of 16: “It took us an hour to come from the hotel headquarters, accompanied by the police. The road was completely empty, but they slowed the speed to 20-25 kilometers per hour.”
He explained: “All the traffic lights were red. I only had two minutes to have a preparatory conversation. We had to reduce the warm-up time. This is unbelievable.”
Stuttgart police said that the Belgians were responsible for their late arrival to their Euro 2024 match against the Ukrainian national team.
Frank Belz, the official police spokesman, told the newspapers Stuttgart Nachrichten and Stuttgart Zeitung: “The police informed the Belgian national team and the European Football Association (UEFA) in advance that 40 minutes is not enough to get from the team’s residence to the stadium.”
The police indicated that the distance would take 60 minutes, but this was rejected by the Belgian Football Association.
Bales added: “Nothing unusual happened while we were accompanying the Belgian team bus,” noting that the bus left the hotel three minutes late.
He continued that the speed of the bus must be temporarily reduced, to respect the required time difference between the arrival of the two teams participating in the match.
He added that the Belgians themselves paved the way for the late arrival by insisting that the flight time was only 40 minutes.
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