The national police lead officer for football, Mark Roberts, has revealed that he wrote to Uefa to urge it not to stage England’s Euro 2020 qualifier against Czech Republic in Prague this Friday night, amid fears the timing would increase the extent of drunken and antisocial behaviour from travelling fans.
Roberts made no secret of his disappointment at how the plea was overlooked and now the police, the Football Association and the Czech authorities must prepare for the prospect of flashpoints. The fixture has been designated as high risk, with the Czech police ready to deploy an unprecedented number of officers, including English-speaking “anti-conflict units” and, if necessary, anti-riot units.
The England Supporters Travel Club will have 3,731 of its members in Prague while 3,130 will be in Sofia on Monday week for the game against Bulgaria. But it is expected that around 6,000 England fans will be in Prague – a city that is well-known for its cheap beer and nightlife. Never before would so many supporters have come to Prague at a single time.
When England played the Netherlands in a friendly on a Friday night in Amsterdam during March 2018, there were more than 100 arrests and condemnation for the appalling behaviour of the travelling fans. The National Police Chiefs’ Council said at the time that it had “significant” concerns about playing the game on a Friday night but they had not been consulted. The FA said it has no say in the scheduling of Uefa tournament matches.
“I wrote to Uefa asking them to reconsider the Friday night kick-off,” Roberts said. “That’s not something we’ve been able to do. It is harder when you’re dealing with them [Uefa] and, particularly, when you’re playing away. I think it’s unfortunate because you can foresee the risk. We’d much rather prevent a situation developing than try to manage it on the night and regret it afterwards.”
The police and FA have done much to tackle violent hooliganism but the issue these days relates more to antisocial behaviour or, as Roberts puts it, the “stag-do mentality and the problem that we have with alcohol consumption”. He describes how many of the offenders are younger men with no criminal records who, as such, are difficult to spot and police. They only reveal themselves as troublemakers when they drink to excess and, even then, sometimes do not think they have done much wrong.
Roberts gives an example from June’s Nations League finals in Portugal when England fans caused mayhem in Porto, drawing responses from baton-wielding officers. “I saw one young Tottenham fan who was outside one of the bars,” Robert said. “He was drunk and joining in with all the songs that we’re familiar with. He was not throwing bottles but others were and the situation escalated. A couple of days later, I saw that lad and he’d been out to buy his mum a little present. It was wrapped up in paper. Yet he’d been a part of that group and if he’d have got batoned, he’d have been horrified. So would his mum. He’s there with the stag-do mentality. They don’t always realise the risks of what they’re doing.”
Roberts spells out the implications for the respectful England fans – all of them risk being tarred with the same brush and receiving harsh treatment. He makes the point about what happened before June’s Nations League semi-final against the Netherlands in Guimarães, when two turnstiles were not working, a crowd built up and there was a bit of pushing but nobody did anything wrong. Then, the riot police charged in with batons.
“What we saw was the Portuguese police probably reaching a threshold of their patience,” Roberts said. “It’s the decent England fans who picked up the tab for the people who had been drunk and abusive for a number of days. It’s starting to influence the way they are policed.”
Roberts has encouraged the Czech police to take “low-level action early doors” against individual trouble-makers before large mobs build up while the FA has launched a campaign called “Report that idiot”. Anyone witnessing antisocial behaviour can report it by emailing englandsupportersclub@thefa.com or by calling or texting +44 7970146250.
