A sprawling European Championship like no other is racking up air miles like never before.
Some teams at Euro 2020, which is being held in various countries, have played most or all their games so far at home. Others are flying from one end of the continent to the other and back again.
“Unfortunately you have teams or countries who can play all their group games in their countries,” Belgium defender Thomas Vermaelen said Tuesday after a group stage spent shuttling between St. Petersburg and Copenhagen with a training base in Belgium.
“Traveling is not something that will help you win the tournament but it’s something we have to accept and just deal with it,” Vermaelen said. “It’s not something we will moan about as a team. It’s just something that belongs to this tournament.”
The distances between the 11 host cities make even the last two World Cups — when teams flew across the Amazon rainforest in Brazil or to Russia’s Ural mountains — seem small by comparison.