EURO 2020 FINAL. England v Italy. At Wembley. Thread.

[stripeyfox]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/59516147

 

Euro 2020 final disorder Ticketless thugs 'could have killed' at England v Italy game

Last updated on5 minutes ago5 minutes ago.From the sectionFootball

"Ticketless, drunken and drugged-up thugs" could have caused death as they stormed Wembley before the Euro 2020 final, says a review into the disorder.

The report by Baroness Louise Casey concluded about 2,000 people got into the England v Italy game illegally.

It noted 17 mass breaches of disabled access gates and emergency fire doors.

Casey described "an appalling scene of disorder" that turned the 11 July final, which Italy won on penalties, into a "day of national shame".

Her report said there was a "collective failure" in planning, including a "vulnerable" stewarding operation lacking experience partly because of the pandemic and the police deployment arriving "too late".

The knowledge that about 25,000 of Wembley's 90,000 seats would be left empty because of Covid restrictions contributed to a "perfect storm" of factors.

"Our team of role models were in our first major final for 55 years. However they were let down by a horde of ticketless, drunken and drugged up thugs who chose to abuse innocent, vulnerable and disabled people, as well as police officers, volunteers and Wembley staff," said Casey.

"We are genuinely lucky that there was not much more serious injury or worse, and need to take the toughest possible action against people who think a football match is somehow an excuse to behave like that.

"I am clear that the primary responsibility for what went wrong at Wembley that day lies with those who lost control of their own behaviour."

The review also found that:

• An England victory in the shoot-out would have created a "further huge public safety risk" with up to 6,000 people planning to storm the stadium at full-time to celebrate as the gates opened to allow ticket-holders to leave.
• There was "a collective failure" among the organisations who staged the final to plan for the "foreseeable risk" of disorder and ticketless fans converging on the stadium.
• Alcohol and drugs were a key factor in the disorder as fans arrived at the stadium up to eight hours before the 20:00 BST kick-off.
• Planning for the final was hampered by the extra strain placed on authorities by managing the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions and the loss of experienced stewards.

What does the review recommend?

Casey concluded that "law-abiding fans, our national team and our national game deserve better" and that the events of 11 July "can't be allowed to happen again".

She said the absence of fan zones close to the stadium were "potentially a very significant factor" in the situation spiralling out of control, and that the ban on drinking on London transport was not enforced strictly enough.

The national euphoria and focus on the final made fans gathering and disorder "foreseeable" and "there was a collective failure to plan for the worse case scenario".

Casey recommends a series of more general changes to help prevent a repeat:

• Empowering authorities to act more strongly against fans using drugs, flares and smoke bombs at matches and around stadiums and entering stadiums without a ticket.
• A Football Association campaign to force "a sea-change in attitudes towards supporter behaviours"
• Better communication between the agencies overseeing the match and the flow of fans to the stadium.
• A new category for football matches "of national significance" to make organisers aware of the unique challenges of such major events.

The Metropolitan Police had said that 51 arrests were made connected to the final, with 26 of those made at Wembley. In all, there were 90 football-related arrests of England fans at Euro 2020.

What does the Football Association say?

Football Association chief executive Mark Bullingham said that "no event is set up to deal with such disgraceful behaviour from thousands of ticketless fans", but apologised "for the terrible experience that many suffered within Wembley on what should have been a historic night".

"We fully accept the report's findings and there are important learnings for us, as well as other agencies involved," he added.

"Collectively we must never allow this to happen again.

"The lessons learned from this review will ensure that fans have a good experience at major international events at Wembley, as they have for many years."

England have been ordered to play one match behind closed doors and the FA fined 100,000 euros (£84,560) by European football governing body Uefa as punishment for the unrest.

UK Sport have denied that England's possible bid to host the 2030 World Cup has been irrecoverably damaged by the disorder.

[Lako42]

"Our team of role models"

 

Lol

[Super_horns]

Basically a mess and uncontrollable chaos all around 

[l444ry]

Some elements of England's so called "support" were a bloody disgrace. Almost every Italy supporter that came into my vision (man,woman or child) was verbally or physically assaulted. I had never covered my colours for club or country in my entire life until that game. I unfortunately had to sit in an England area and one scumbag racist thickbat almost climbed over seats to abuse a rather naive noisy but passionate Italian fan sat behind me when Italy got their equaliser. England should have received at least a five game ban behind closed doors as a minimum punishment.

[SystonFox]

10 hours ago, Lako42 said:

"Our team of role models"

 

Lol

Not sure what’s funny? They were bloody brilliant this time around…. Always having to beat them down

[Berlinfox]

Surely after this England's bid to co-host the World Cup should be withdrawn. A big dose of humility is in order. There is always a lot of outrage at incidents of racism in other countries, but England absolutely needs to get its own house in order. A country with this amount of football-related drunken xenophobic thuggery should not put itself as a potential host.

[Duquesne Whistle]

3 minutes ago, Berlinfox said:

Surely after this England's bid to co-host the World Cup should be withdrawn. A big dose of humility is in order. There is always a lot of outrage at incidents of racism in other countries, but England absolutely needs to get its own house in order. A country with this amount of football-related drunken xenophobic thuggery should not put itself as a potential host.

I agree with what you've said there, 100%.

The carnage at the final was an utterly predictable finale to the tournament. Whilst the squad weren't good enough to win it, they gave the supporters a run all the way to the last match only for another off field embarrassment on an international scale by England supporters. 

I wouldn't hold your breath though. 

[Bellend Sebastian]

This here timeline makes grim reading:

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/59518850

 

I tell you what, I'm glad I wasn't in charge of that operation. I can see why they consider themselves lucky nobody was killed.

 

Sad times when the authorities are hoping England lose just because it's going to be impossible to keep order if they win.

 

The drug thing is getting a bit out of hand, isn't it? Folk seem to be making less and less effort to hide their cocaine use. At least they used to lock themselves in the bog to do it