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UEFA has contingency plan to replace Wembley for Euro final

UEFA has contingency plan to replace Wembley for Euro final

UEFA said on Friday (18) that it has a contingency plan to replace Wembley as the venue of Euro 2020 final if the British government does not exempt travelling foreign fans from the 10-day quarantine rules.

With the proposed plan of lifting final Covid-19 restrictions being postponed from June 21, tournament organisers are now in negotiations with the government.


The London stadium is scheduled to host both semifinals and the final.

According to The Times newspaper, if Wembley is unable to accept travelling fans then Budapest could be the alternative venue.

"There is always a contingency plan but we are confident that the final week (of matches) will be held in London," UEFA said in a statement.

European football's governing body said discussions with local authorities centred on allowing fans of participating teams to attend matches "using a strict testing and bubble concept that would mean their stay in the UK would be less than 24 hours and their movements would be restricted to approved transport and venues only."

UEFA said it understood the pressures the government faced. It hoped discussions would reach a "satisfactory conclusion" and was delighted that capacity at Wembley was scheduled to go up to at least 50 per cent for the knock-out round matches.

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Tax reforms threaten Britain’s family firms as financial strain deepens

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  • Family businesses make up 90 per cent of UK private firms and employ 13.9 m people.
  • Nearly 50,000 businesses now in critical financial distress, up 21 per cent year-on-year.
  • Ethnic minority businesses contribute £74 bn annually despite facing funding barriers.
Family-owned companies, the backbone of Britain’s private sector, are warning that looming inheritance tax reforms could cripple investment, drive jobs overseas, and weaken an economy already battling rising financial distress.
Ranjit Singh Boparan started with a small bank loan and a butcher’s knife. Today, his 2 Sisters Food Group employs 25,000 people and supplies chicken and ready meals to almost every major UK supermarket. He notes that family businesses like his have been forgotten by the government.

“To get the UK economy going you’ve got to use family businesses as the backbone of it, not the BlackRocks or the Vanguards,” Boparan told The Times. He says overseas investment giants “will come in, they will take and they will go. He adds they have no allegiance to the country.” Boparan describes the proposed changes as “horrific” for family businesses and warns they threaten food security as companies think twice about investing.

Family firms make up 90 per cent of all private sector companies in the UK and employ 13.9 million people. These businesses contributed £575 billion to the economy in 2020, accounting for 51 per cent of all private sector employment.

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