Bucharest, Budapest: Confusion over names leads French fans to wrong country for Euro 2020

Tribune Web Desk
Chandigarh, June 25

Those geography lessons in schools are terribly important, as some fans of the French football team found out much to their intense embarrassment.

A Romanian newspaper Jurnalul National reported that a group of France fans who were to witness their national team play Hungary in Budapest’s ended up not only in the wrong stadium but also in an entirely different country—in the Romanian capital of Bucharest, some 500 miles from where they had to be.

Neither the Romanian flags nor the language spoken at the airport tipped these heady six—all work colleagues who took the morning flight to Budapest instead of Bucharest to witness Hungary play France—of their error.  In fact, they were entirely oblivious of it until they went drinking with some Ukrainian fans, who were in the city to witness their national team play Austria, and followed them to the centre of the city to watch the match.

“We thought they were Hungarian fans going to the game and we followed them, thinking that as they were from the city they knew the way to the stadium,” one of the France fans told Jurnalul National.

It was only during the game that it dawned on them that they were nowhere near their intended destination—the Puskas Arena in Hungary.

When Romanian journalist Adi Munteanu noticed they weren’t chanting with the Ukrainians, he asked them if they’d travelled from Kiev.

“We got here by mistake. It’s becoming increasingly clear that we are not where we need to be,” was the reply.

Once their mistake became absolutely clear, the six misplaced French fans decided to stay put to watch their team draw the match 1-1, and then watch them play Portugal at the Puskas Arena in Wednesday’s Group F decider.   

 “We have to learn more about Europe,” one of the group acknowledged.