Ex-Scotland star Burley moans it’s "not fair" England play most games at Wembley

Former Scotland star Craig Burley has blasted England’s Euro 2020 fixture pattern, calling it “not fair”.

The Three Lions are preparing for a semi-final against Denmark, with a shot at the trophy against either Italy or Spain the prize, at London-based stadium Wembley.

It will be the fourth game that they have played at the 90,000-seater stadium, having played all three group games there against Croatia, Scotland and the Czech Republic.

Gareth Southgate’s boys were also cheered on by 40,000 for their round-of-16 win against Germany before beating Ukraine 4-0 in Rome.

It has not escaped viewers’ notice that all four semi-finalists played all of their group-stage games at their home grounds in Rome, Seville and Copenhagen.

And Burley, who started his career at Chelsea and spent eight senior seasons in west London, was left fuming compared to the fixture run of his own country.

Speaking on ESPN, the 49-year-old said: “If you get to the final — which I think England will, even though Denmark are the best team still in there — you are going to play six out of seven games at Wembley.

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“What the hell is that all about from UEFA? You've played four games at Wembley already.

“If you are an elite country, which England supposedly are, you can't have them playing six out of the seven games in front of their own fans. So UEFA have made a complete hash of it.

“I’ve got no problem with England, in the tournament I played in, playing their games at Wembley as they were hosting the whole tournament [at Euro 96].

“But we've just seen Belgium go out after travelling all over. We've seen other countries suffer the same.

“There has to be an element of fairness to this. Not playing six out of the seven games, if you get to the final, at Wembley when you're not hosting the tournament. It's not on.”

Scotland played two of their three Euro 2020 games at Hampden Park in Glasgow, losing 2-0 to the Czech Republic and 3-1 to Croatia.

While they took their only point against the Three Lions at Wembley, holding on for an impressive 0-0 draw.

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