'Sex Sounds' Interrupt Euro 2024 Draw Ceremony
During the draw ceremony for the 2024 European Football Championship, sounds similar to those made by people making love suddenly began to be heard in a concert hall in Hamburg, Germany. Euronews writes about it.
The incident took place on Saturday, 2 December. The "sounds of sex" were clearly heard within minutes after Switzerland was announced and the draw for its team's place in the schedule began.
At this moment, the president of the Swiss Football Federation, Dominique Blanc, showed embarrassment on his face.
Giorgio Marchetti, UEFA's Director of Competitions, who hosted the draw, noted that the noise stopped during his commentary before continuing to allocate the remaining five places for the lower-ranked teams in the 24-nation standings. However, the sound was restored periodically until the draw was completed.
It later became known that this was the work of British prankster Daniel Jarvis. He personally boasted of the prank on his social media. Jarvis posted footage of himself calling a mobile phone placed in a concert hall with excellent acoustics. The melody of the phone ringing was the sound.
Twitter (X) also shared a video showing the prankster inside the hall during the rehearsal for the draw.
UEFA said it was investigating the incident, as it is unclear how Jarvis was let in by security.
Jarvis organised a similar prank a year ago, in January 2023, in the BBC studio when they were analysing the FA Cup match between Wolverhampton and Liverpool. It turned out to be a prank call using a mobile phone left outside the studio.
The BBC later apologised to the viewers, although presenter Gary Lineker said it was a rather "funny sabotage".
Euro 2024 will be held in 10 cities in Germany from 14 June 2024.
Euro 2024 will feature 24 teams that have passed the qualifiers. At the time of the final part of the draw on Saturday, 21 teams were known: the host - Germany, as well as 20 teams that have overcome the main part of the qualification.
Three more teams will be determined in March 2024 based on the results of the play-offs. Among the contenders is Ukraine, which did not qualify directly for the tournament but received opponents in the play-off round.
The results of the Euro 2024 draw:
А: Germany, Scotland, Hungary, Switzerland
В: Spain, Croatia, Italy, Albania
С: Slovenia, Denmark, Serbia, England
D: Poland/Wales/Finland/Estonia, Netherlands, Austria, France
E: Belgium, Slovakia, Romania, Israel/Bosnia and Herzegovina/Ukraine, Iceland
F: Turkey, Georgia/Greece/Kazakhstan/Luxembourg, Portugal, Czech Republic