Night the embodiment of modern Ukraine delivered

THIS has been an extremely difficult tournament to cover. Anybody who’s attempted to move from one venue to another is already feeling the effects of a night spent huddled on an airport floor, or squashed into a packed train for an overnight journey. Little wonder there are swathes of empty seats at stadiums for the first time at a European Championship since 1996.

The South Africa World Cup was similarly characterised by logistical difficulties and half-empty venues for certain games. The message for administrators is clear: if you are going to break new frontiers, this is the cost — at least if you set ticket process way beyond the means of locals.

It’s easy to be grouchy. But then you get something like Ukraine’s victory over Sweden on Monday and a sudden outpouring of joyous national pride and you suddenly feel very churlish. It was the same at the Cup of Nations in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon in January. Of course in any rational world it was crazy to invest millions into stadiums that will rarely if ever be full again; of course in any rational world other governments would have as little to do with the Equatoguinean despot Obiang Nguema as possible; of course in any rational world you wouldn’t co-host in a tournament in which you have to fly on unlicensed airlines or drive for nine hours through mountainous jungle to get from venue to venue.