Croatia have cancelled plans to stay in St Andrews during Euro 2020 over concerns around self-isolation regulations. The 2018 World Cup finalists will stay at their training centre in Rovinj apart from when travelling to their games.
Their decision comes two days after the Czech Republic, with whom they are in Group D with Scotland and England, cancelled their plans to stay in Scotland, also citing Covid-19 rules. They had been booked at the Scottish national training centre in Oriam.
A statement from the Croatian federation said: “The federation received a recommendation from Uefa to change the location of its team base camp, due to the potential impact of the Scottish Covid-19 regulations on the national team’s daily routines.
“The federation was unwilling to risk the possibility of positive PCR results causing a large part of the team and team staff to be issued mandatory self-isolation orders, which is why it has decided to change its original plan of having the team based in St Andrews.”
In Scotland, anyone deemed to be a close contact of a person testing positive must self-isolate for 10 days from the point of last contact. Scotland’s squad will be based at Middlesbrough’s training ground.
Croatia’s coach, Zlatko Dalic, said: “Considering the present circumstances, I think this is the best option for the team. We know that we’ll have excellent conditions here, that the accommodation will be impeccable, and that the training ground is of high quality. In the limited amount of time we had to make this decision, no other location could guarantee us all of the above.
“We’ll do our best to keep the team isolated and in peace, but I’m sure that the support of Croatian fans here can only bring us extra energy and motivation. This is the best outcome that we could reach in these strange times, and we now have a unique opportunity to spend this tournament in our own country.”
Croatia face England at Wembley in their opening match on 13 June, before taking on the Czech Republic at Hampden Park on 18 June and Scotland at the same venue on 22 June.
