Football fans from all over the world were shocked, appalled and perhaps slightly amused after what can only be described as "sex noises" interrupted the otherwise formal atmosphere of the Euro 2024 draw.
The event was held in Hamburg, Germany on Saturday, and millions of fans tuned in for the live broadcast. The draw was shown not only in Europe, but was also aired across a variety of platforms for the worldwide audience. Needless to say, there was not much that broadcasters could do to prevent millions of people from hearing the sounds of a woman moaning loudly as if she was in the throes of a passionate encounter.
Football aficionados are quite familiar with how UEFA conducts draws for their major competitions. The Euro 2024 draw had a similar feel to the ones done for competitions such as the UEFA Champions League and the Europa League.
However, on Saturday, as Switzerland was being drawn into Group A to join the likes of Scotland, Hungary and hosts Germany, loud lewd noises suddenly started resonating around the venue.
YouTube prankster Daniel Jarvis claimed responsibility for the prank, which is similar to a previous one he pulled on the BBC back in January. At the time, he interrupted a pre-match broadcast featuring an FA Cup clash between Liverpool FC and the Wolverhampton Wanderers. Loud sex noises were also heard suddenly as pundits were discussing the upcoming match. It was later discovered that a mobile phone had been planted inside the BBC studio.
Apart from the UEFA site, the BBC also streamed the Euro 2024 draw live, making the UK's national broadcaster a victim of the prankster yet again.
While some might find the incident to be amusing, those onstage during the draw looked visibly uncomfortable while trying hard not to react. They proceeded with the draw and tried their best to let the show go on despite the interruption.
Giorgio Marchetti, the deputy general secretary of UEFA, calmly addressed the issue. He acknowledged the noise in order to take the heat off everyone else who was with him on stage. He said: "There is some noise here that... has now stopped. No noise anymore."
Ada suara mendesah di tengah drawing Euro 2024 Jerman. 😵💫 pic.twitter.com/7EW17GM7VZ
— Regista (@registaco) December 2, 2023
On the upside, UEFA will not need to dig deep in order to find out who was the perpetrator of the prank as Jarvis livestreamed exactly how he used a mobile phone to produce the lewd sounds at his chosen intervals during the draw. His stream was shown on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
During his livestream, Jarvis told his followers: "Listen that was us, that was us. We got it in there, we put the phone in there, we rung it, sex noise at the Euro 2024 draw." It was almost exactly the same strategy as the FA Cup prank, and it is unclear exactly how the prankster managed to get the phone inside the venue. However, he was clearly extremely pleased with himself for pulling off the childish prank.
England manager Gareth Southgate was in the live audience during the draw and refused to acknowledge that the noises became a huge distraction. He said that they could barely hear it and did not even know what it was. He added that he simply assumed that it was a prank.
Indeed, the rest of the audience did not seem to react to the noise, meaning the phone may have been closer to the stage. UEFA has launched and investigation and it remains to be seen if they will take legal action against Jarvis. He confirmed that he was also in Hamburg during the incident, but it is unclear if police have been involved and if he is potentially facing the possibility of getting arrested.
