More than 140,000 people sign petition demanding England v Italy Euro 2020 final be replayed

A petition demanding that the final of Euro 2020 be replayed has been signed by more than 140,000 people.

As you’ll probably know by now, England lost their first appearance in a major final for 55 years to Italy via a penalty shootout after the game had finished 1-1.

However, many complained during the match that at least two of the Italian players should have been sent off for fouls on the England players.

The two instances that particularly aggrieved fans included a studs-up challenge from Jorginho which caught Jack Grealish on his upper thigh leaving the midfielder in some agony. The second came from Italy’s captain Giorgio Chiellini, who shamelessly grabbed the neck of Bukayo Saka’s shirt as the winger raced away from the veteran defender.

These two moments that were punished with only yellow cards build the basis of the aforementioned petition on Change.org that is demanding that the final be played again.

The petition that has been created by Sharon Guilmen states: “The match on 11/07/2021 was not fair at all. After Italy only receiving a yellow card for dragging England players like they were slaves. All the pushes, pulls and kicks and Italy was still allowed to win? Definitely biased. Italy should have been given a red card for their gameplay and the rematch should happen with a non-biased referee. This was not fair at all.”

Dutch referee Bjorn Kuipers gave five yellow cards to the Italian players during the match, whereas Harry Maguire was the only player to receive a yellow card for England.

Despite more than 140,000 people signing the petition (at the time of writing), which has a goal of 150,000, we doubt that Uefa will actually take any notice of this petition as replaying the match would be a logistical nightmare and would open the floodgates for other long-standing football gripes about players not being sent off in matches.