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Sex-noise prank sabotages Euro 2024 group-stage draw in Hamburg

The draw for Euro 2024 was conducted in Hamburg on Saturday evening (REUTERS)
The draw for Euro 2024 was conducted in Hamburg on Saturday evening (REUTERS)

Saturday's Euro 2024 group-stage draw in Hamburg was sabotaged by an embarrassing sex-noise prank.

Loud moaning noises could be heard several times in the background during the latter stages as the draw for next summer's men's European Championship in Germany was being conducted at the Elbphilharmonie concert hall, with Uefa now reported to be investigating the incident.

There were no shortage of awkward looks and smirks from the football dignitaries in the crowd, while the likes of Manchester City legend David Silva and Danish football icon Brian Laudrup tried to maintain their composure as they continued to draw the teams despite the odd disruption.

"There is some noise here... that has now stopped," said draw host and Uefa's deputy general secretary Giorgio Marchetti after the completion of Group A, which included hosts Germany plus Scotland, Hungary and Switzerland.

"No noise anymore..." he added, before the loud noises then promptly resumed when Italy were drawn as the last team into Group B along with Spain, Albania and Croatia.

Asked if he had heard the noises after the draw, in which his team were placed in Group C along with Denmark, Slovenia and Serbia, England boss Gareth Southgate told the Press Association: "I did. I'm assuming it was some sort of a prank, but it was hard to really make out what it was."

The same issues affected the BBC's broadcast of an FA Cup third-round replay between Premier League rivals Wolves and Liverpool at Molineux back in January.

On that occasion, a phone had been taped to the back of the Match of the Day set by internet pranksters who called in to repeatedly trigger the sounds and disrupt the broadcast featuring Gary Lineker, Paul Ince, Danny Murphy and Alan Shearer, leading to an apology to viewers from the BBC.

YouTube prankster and pitch invader Daniel Jarvis - AKA Jarvo69 - was behind that episode and has also revealed himself as responsible for this latest incident, posting a live stream of how it happened on his social media accounts.

"Listen that was us, that was us," he said in a video posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

"We got it in there, we put the phone in there, we rung it, sex noise at the Euro 2024 draw. Love you guys."