Euro 2020 will not be happening this summer. It's unclear as of yet whether any sport will be. And it's really not all that important in the grand scheme of things. But for millions of us, sport is our outlet. It might be not be life and death, but the lack of sport has legitimately left a massive hole in our lives.
So if we can't have new sport, why not relive some old stuff? TG4 and eir have been outstanding in giving us classic GAA to fill the void, but for a football audience robbed of the end of the club season and of Euro 2020, there remains an empty schedule.
In England, ITV announced this week that they will be broadcasting all 31 games of Euro 96 on their ITV Hub, as well as broadcasting the England matches on ITV 4. It's a brilliant opportunity for the country to experience "football coming home" once again all these years later.
Football’s coming home as the ITV Hub unearths Euro 96. Airing from May, ITV Hub takes a trip down sporting memory lane and will air all 31 games from one of the most closely contested tournaments in recent history. https://t.co/KqoY1ZCfk5 pic.twitter.com/Hq5y29VStQ
— ITV Press Centre (@itvpresscentre) March 27, 2020
In this country, our Euro 96 is obviously Italia 90. Just to make sure, we asked you in a poll on Twitter which tournament you'd like to see again this summer.
Now obviously Italia 90 wasn't the prettiest tournament in history outside of the incredible results of the Irish team. It's history over football. In 2002, we got a bit of both, and it was that tournament that pushed 1990 all the way in the vote. In fact, they were within a few votes of each other for much of the process.
What tournament would you watch again this summer in its entirety to replace Euro 2020?
— Balls.ie (@ballsdotie) March 28, 2020
With 38% of the vote, Italia 90 squeezed the poll. On the back of that, we'd love RTE, Virgin Media, TG4 and eir Sport to seriously consider showing the tournament, and for FIFA to be generous with the rights distribution in this unique time.
We do feel people may be in for a rude awakening with the quality of the actual spectacle, but we can get past that for a bit of nostalgia and a bit of football.
So make your voices heard and get in touch with the powers that be and make it this a reality.
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