England vs Netherlands: FA concerned by prospect of English hooliganism during Nations League finals

Scenes of violence and disorder marred England's outing to Seville and Amsterdam last year

The Football Association has admitted it is concerned by the prospect of fan hooliganism marring England’s Nations League semi-final against the Netherlands, while Harry Maguire urged those supporters travelling to Portugal next week to ‘stick to the boundaries’.

Ugly scenes of violence between fans and police tarnished England’s outing to Seville last October. English supporters had to be dispersed by riot police on the evening before the Nations League match with Spain while offensive chants were sung in the build-up to and during the fixture at the Benito Villamarin Stadium.

In March of last year, similar scenes of disorder broke out in Amsterdam for England’s international friendly against the Netherlands. Scores of English fans clashed with Dutch police while one fan was filmed throwing a bicycle into a canal.

The offending England Supporters Travel Club (ESTC) members were subsequently identified by the FA and handed lengthy bans.

With roughly 15,000 fans expected to travel to Guimaraes for the semi-final, the FA conceded it was worried there would be a repeat of the anti-social behaviour seen in Amsterdam and Seville last year.

Tony Conniford, head of teams and corporate security at the FA, said: “There are concerns any time when you have that number of supporters that are travelling to country that is very close with easy access.

“And it’s in the summer in the evening so fans will be there all day. The normal concerns are there.”

Specifically, Conniford admitted that it was “groups of young, adult males booking together” that posed the greatest concern. “It is that holiday, stag-do culture where young guys get together and suddenly anything goes,” he said.

Maguire, who is expected to be named in Southgate’s starting XI for next week’s clash, encouraged fans to enjoy themselves in Portugal but warned against overstepping the line.

“I’m sure they are going to go over there and enjoy themselves and so they should because we’ve earned our place in the semi-finals,” he said. “Go and have a good time but there needs to be boundaries and I’m sure they will stick to them.”

Conniford said fans’ behaviour abroad was largely “alcohol-fuelled” and suggested that while there was “an element of organisation” to the disorder – with groups flying out together to these cities – it was more often than not spontaneous in nature.

“It is embarrassing,” he said. “As a country, I think the whole of it feels that embarrassment. We all feel it, working for the Football Association. Everybody associated with the team feels it.

“I have been involved in football now for 26 years in one role or another, with the police and the FA, and we have gone from the organised violence days to, more recently, a growing number who become involved in this anti-social behaviour.

“A lot of it is alcohol-fuelled and there almost becomes an acceptance that because you are at football, anything goes. I find that difficult to buy into and people need to have a look at themselves and start to think, ‘If my relatives, wife or children were here with me, would it be an enjoyable experience?’ And the answer is no.”

The FA has the ability to ban ESTC members caught acting in an unacceptable manner but the organisation remains limited in stopping those disorderly fans who travel to a game without tickets.

“We can only do what we can do,” Conniford said. “All I can say is that any process that we have is the best we have ever had and we deal with everybody as reasonably and proportionately as we possibly can and leave the rest who are not our members to the police.

“And there will be a large police delegation out there supported by the UK police and if anybody steps out of line, as we have seen in tournaments and fixtures previously, it is very easy to get the evidence against them.

Individuals were seen holding chairs and walking towards police during the clashes in Amsterdam (Twitter/@casualsportsn)

“Then when they come back home they find themselves in a court for a banning order.”

Conniford also warned that fans caught singing offensive chants of any sort would be banned from the ESTC membership.

“We’ve tried to educate people that those songs cause offence and unfortunately, as we all know too well in football, football chants have a habit of coming back all the time and it doesn’t matter what you say or what you do, you really have a job on your hands to stop that.

“But if we hear people doing that and we can evidence that people have been chanting offensive stuff then, as an Association, they’re gone from our membership. We won’t tolerate it.”

Between September 2014 and March 2019, the FA issued 127 suspensions from the ESTC and 237 warnings.

In Dortmund (March 2017) and Amsterdam (March 2018) alone there were 28 and 32 ESTC suspensions respectively.