You are here
Home > Football > Why will England v Italy be played behind closed doors?

Why will England v Italy be played behind closed doors?

Ros Atkins on… the trouble at Wembley

England will host Italy behind closed doors on Saturday as punishment for unrest at Wembley Stadium during last summer’s Euro 2020 final.

England manager Gareth Southgate called the ban an “embarrassment for England as a country”.

The match at Wolves’ Molinuex Stadium at 19:45 BST comes exactly 11 months after England lost to Saturday’s opponents in the showpiece final.

The Football Association was also fined 100,000 euros (£84,560).

European football’s governing body Uefa imposed the sanctions last October, which included a two-game stadium ban, but the second game was suspended for two years.

The ban is the first time the FA has received a punishment that has resulted in England having to play a home match behind closed doors.

Will the stadium be completely empty?

There will be about 3,000 people in attendance at Molinuex, largely under-14 schoolchildren who, under Uefa rules, are allowed free admission to fixtures played behind closed doors.

There was a similar situation last Saturday when England faced Hungary, who had been ordered to play three games behind closed doors as punishment for discriminatory behaviour by their fans at Euro 2020.

But there was more than 30,000 spectators at Budapest’s Puskas Arena, mainly schoolchildren, and England’s players were jeered by the crowd as they took a knee.

Speaking about the incidents at Wembley last July, Southgate said: “A lot of the people that caused the problems I’m not certain were football fans. We spoke enough about it, we spoke about it after the final and when the punishment was first given.”

And he praised fans who travelled to Germany this week for England’s first game in Munich since their memorable 5-1 World Cup qualifying win in 2001.

“What I will say is the vast majority of our fans who travelled to Germany behaved brilliantly,” he said.

“A big thank you to them because maybe people were thinking something different but there were a huge majority who were a credit.”

What happened at the Euro 2020 final?

Fans fought with stewards and police as they attempted to break into Wembley for the match on 11 July, which England lost to Italy on penalties.

Hundreds of fans got into Wembley without tickets after areas around the stadium became packed hours before the evening kick-off.

Many sat in the area reserved for players’ relatives, while England defender Harry Maguire later said that his father Alan suffered two suspected broken ribs before the game.

The Manchester United captain said his father was caught up in the stampede and was “struggling to breathe” after being trampled on.

Uefa said the sanctions related to “the lack of order and discipline inside and around the stadium, for the invasion of the field of play, for throwing of objects and for the disturbances during the national anthems”.

A report by Baroness Casey, published in December, said that “ticketless, drunken and drugged-up thugs” could have caused death as they stormed Wembley.

The report said there was a “collective failure” in planning for the match, which about 2,000 people got into illegally, with 17 mass breaches of disabled access gates and emergency fire doors.

Sourced From BBC

FacebookTwitterEmailWhatsAppBloggerShare
Tutorialspoint
el-admin
el-admin
EltasZone Sportswriters, Sports Analysts, Opinion columnists, editorials and op-eds. Analysis from The Zone Team
Similar Articles
Top