Euro 2020 final disorder report

[Animis]

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

 

"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.

 

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

Her report said there was a "collective failure" in planning for the match on 11 July, 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 Lady 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."

Home Office figures released in October showed that there were 39 football-related arrests at the match.

 

The review also found that:

• An England victory in the shootout 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.

 

Lady 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".

 

Lady 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.

 

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

[Matt_1]

Disgraceful 

[HIGHERSTATE]

n@bheads

[BIG D]

Utter embarrassment 

[TheEnchanter]

Seems ridiculous to say only 2000 fans broke in. Must have been 20,000 judging by the pictures of the stadium. It was rammed and gangways completely full. 

[Bannofan]

You can't argue with any of that can you?

 

That bit about what could have happened if England had won is pretty chilling. 

 

I've taken a few pelters in other threads when stating that I'm ashamed of this country, but that day was an absolute disgrace, a complete embarrassment. 

 

What should have been a fantastic day of celebration was ruined ..and quite frankly, it didn't come as a surprise to me see events play out as they did, but the scale of disorder was gobsmacking.

 

I'm also a bit shocked that there haven't been more sanctions for the English F.A. , even though they can't be held responsible for the general English attitude of ' let's get smashed and indulge in as much anti social behaviour as possible'   .

 

[Big Malc]

2 hours ago, Animis said:

"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."

I hope this finally puts to bed the long held excuses that the mouth-breathers involved in incidents like this often trot out that somehow it is the authorities’ fault.

 

You’re grown adults - start behaving like one.

 

I hope next time we start seeing some skulls cracked.  Because there will be a next time until English football fans learn to behave like civilised human beings.

[Animis]

The Met's statement is really damning - say that they we're nearly overwhelmed and it was close to the game being abandoned.

 

 

[SiJ]

What a great country.

[Quickly Kevin]

Didnt someone on here try and defend it?

 

Talked about jibbing?

 

 

[Animis]

Some fans were more deceitful in their methods, with one impersonating a steward and another hijacking a disabled child in a wheelchair, which separated him from his father.

[Big Malc]

2 hours ago, Quickly Kevin said:

Didnt someone on here try and defend it?

 

Talked about jibbing?

 

 

They certainly did

[Kew Owl]

Sounds pretty horrific and shameful.

 

In no way am I making excuses for anyone’s behaviour, but why wasn’t a 12 pm kick off scheduled ( or even 3 pm ) to treduce pre match drinking.time ?

 

I presume the kick off time was set by UEFA - and outside the control of the English FA

[Bannofan]

3 minutes ago, Kew Owl said:

Sounds pretty horrific and shameful.

 

In no way am I making excuses for anyone’s behaviour, but why wasn’t a 12 pm kick off scheduled ( or even 3 pm ) to treduce pre match drinking.time ?

 

I presume the kick off time was set by UEFA - and outside the control of the English FA

 

You wouldn't have to mitigate for drunken idiots in many other countries , 8.00pm a totally normal time for a tournament final to be played I reckon?

 

 

 

 

[Gob_Bluth]

12 minutes ago, Kew Owl said:

Sounds pretty horrific and shameful.

 

In no way am I making excuses for anyone’s behaviour, but why wasn’t a 12 pm kick off scheduled ( or even 3 pm ) to treduce pre match drinking.time ?

 

I presume the kick off time was set by UEFA - and outside the control of the English FA

 

Wouldn't have mattered, they'd have just started earlier.

 

Nobheads gonna nobhead

[Quickly Kevin]

5 hours ago, Big Malc said:

They certainly did

 

Can you remember who it was?

 

Wonder if they have the stones to defend it still?

[edinburghowl]

18 hours ago, Bannofan said:

You can't argue with any of that can you?

 

That bit about what could have happened if England had won is pretty chilling. 

 

I've taken a few pelters in other threads when stating that I'm ashamed of this country, but that day was an absolute disgrace, a complete embarrassment. 

 

What should have been a fantastic day of celebration was ruined ..and quite frankly, it didn't come as a surprise to me see events play out as they did, but the scale of disorder was gobsmacking.

 

I'm also a bit shocked that there haven't been more sanctions for the English F.A. , even though they can't be held responsible for the general English attitude of ' let's get smashed and indulge in as much anti social behaviour as possible'   .

 

The main sanction will be that you won’t be hosting another tournament again any time soon. That is a banker.

[SiJ]

10 hours ago, Quickly Kevin said:

 

Can you remember who it was?

 

Wonder if they have the stones to defend it still?

No, he tends to magically vanish when the hard questions come.

[Bannofan]

1 hour ago, edinburghowl said:

The main sanction will be that you won’t be hosting another tournament again any time soon. That is a banker.

 

FIFA hate us anyway, so there's no danger of a U.K. + Eire  World Cup , unless we offer some serious bribes like Russia and Qatar .

 

I wouldn't want a tournament in this country anyway. Can you imagine the carnage? 

[Ellis Rimmer]

19 hours ago, Big Malc said:

 

 

I hope next time we start seeing some skulls cracked.  Because there will be a next time until English football fans learn to behave like civilised human beings.

Absolutely vile thing to say