Uefa dismisses Walpen's statements as "silliness"
The European football association Uefa has responded to criticism from SRG Director General Armin Walpen. After he strongly criticized Uefa's censorship of various television images to the Sonntagszeitung newspaper and announced a letter of protest, the association spoke out on Monday.
The European football association Uefa has responded to criticism from SRG Director General Armin Walpen. After he strongly criticized Uefa's censorship of various television images to the Sonntagszeitung newspaper and announced a letter of protest, the association spoke out on Monday.Walpen's criticism (see
) has no basis whatsoever, explained Uefa spokesman William Gaillard on French-speaking Swiss radio RSR on Monday. This is "silliness". Television itself had decided not to show pictures of fans setting off Bengal fires and Croatian spectators who wanted to advertise a beer and storm the pitch. According to Gaillard, SRG would have been better off talking to its own directors first. They were in constant contact with the Uefa technicians who supplied the images. The Uefa people could have pointed out to them that all images were always available on one of the ten image channels provided by Uefa.
Last week, Uefa justified its choice of images by saying that it did not want to provide a stage for violence. Furthermore, such scenes were "not relevant".
Nevertheless, the German broadcaster ARD showed four seconds of the match between Germany and Croatia during which flares were lit in the Croatian fan sector. The question remains as to whether these images were transmitted using Uefa's international signal or captured by ARD's own additional cameras in the stadium.
) has no basis whatsoever, explained Uefa spokesman William Gaillard on French-speaking Swiss radio RSR on Monday. This is "silliness". Television itself had decided not to show pictures of fans setting off Bengal fires and Croatian spectators who wanted to advertise a beer and storm the pitch. According to Gaillard, SRG would have been better off talking to its own directors first. They were in constant contact with the Uefa technicians who supplied the images. The Uefa people could have pointed out to them that all images were always available on one of the ten image channels provided by Uefa.
Last week, Uefa justified its choice of images by saying that it did not want to provide a stage for violence. Furthermore, such scenes were "not relevant".
Nevertheless, the German broadcaster ARD showed four seconds of the match between Germany and Croatia during which flares were lit in the Croatian fan sector. The question remains as to whether these images were transmitted using Uefa's international signal or captured by ARD's own additional cameras in the stadium.
