| My Euro 2020 Final experience @ Wembley 12:32 - Jul 15 with 9094 views | thame_hoops |
Not sure if anyone else here went but thought id share my experience on what was one of my worst experiences at a sports event ever.
Got a call from a mate (who know someone at the FA) that they had a spare ticket £85, whilst I was at the Wimbledon men's final. took him up on the offer, as soon as Djokovic won, I headed to Wembley.
On the way to the tennis (left princes Risborough 11am) the train was full of England fans, all in good humour, no trouble, good atmosphere on the tube to Southfields etc.
On route to Wembley, the mood had changed completely. Drunken idiots hurling abuse at women and children on the jubilee line, never seen anything like it. Got to Wembley around 6:30pm and it was rammed solid, shoulder to shoulder, people pushing, barging their way though. fights amongst fans, children crying. it was horrific. Stewards checking your covid pass and tickets at the first hurdle before you were let up the gangways (outside the stadium and no phone signal to open the app so screenshots had to do)
England fans threatening stewards to let them past, and it worked. I saw one guy telling a young steward "if you dont let me though I'll F*** you up with a knife" the poor kid was terrified. I saw grown men giving cash to stewards to be let them through this first hurdle as well as people storming through in groups (you would have all seen the videos)
Got my ticket scanned with some weird pen on the QR code and let in, the guy said "its nice to see someone with a ticket) and went through airport style security.
Once inside the ground on level 1 it was carnage. Fighting, stewards chasing people, people who i assume had tickets were stickling out legs to try and trip over people who were running, children in tears again. i saw 3 stewards on top of a fan who'd fallen over, they started to kick the sh*t out of him while he was on the floor. other fans joined in.
In the toilets i saw a man try pick a fight with a guy who had his 8yr old kid with him. Staff at the merchandise stalls we saying there are literally hundreds of fans without tickets (5k was later confirmed in the media), one guy opened up a fire escape for the them to rush in. We heard of stewards taking £200 cash from people to admit them straight in. I hope the police go back and check cctv to catch the b*stards.
Once we got to to our seats, right behind the goal, block 113, I noticed the gangways were filling up of people standing, stewards all stood around them not moving them on, it was obvious they didn't have tickets. what stuck me was there was very little police present, I have seen more on south Africa road for a game vs Preston.
The atmosphere was completely toxic throughout, i couldn't enjoy the game with this distraction and worrying how id get out, i have never seen anything like it in my life and it has put me off ever going to an England game again.
At the end of the game, the Italian players ran to our corner to celebrate and it caused a surge in idiots running down to try confront them. i saw bottles thrown, lighters, mobile phones, whatever they could get was thrown. a man climbed up and started ripping down a TV microphone, the lady along from my was scared rigid (she works for the FA and was still very upset this morning according to my mate)
We stayed in seats for a while to let the crowds disperse, in the foyer was a Leicester fan really upset that he wasn't allowed to collect his flag, he said it cost £500 and the stewards started to man-handle him (after he was getting aggressive) while 2 police stood and watched.
Just wanted to air my experience, sorry to go on, i think this has really dented our chances for 2030.
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| My Euro 2020 Final experience @ Wembley on 13:22 - Jul 15 with 5667 views | bermudabob |
Your post does not surprise me. I took my two kids up to Wembley at around 3 pm to sample the atmosphere. At that point it was boisterous but not aggressive, we left before 5. However the volume of people, numbers without tickets and time drinking was always likely to result in issues. The police were keeping a low profile.
However I was lucky enough to go to the England semi final with my eldest. We did go into the ground 90 minutes before kick off but the experience was fantastic. Really good natured and enjoyable inside and outside the ground. |  | | |
| My Euro 2020 Final experience @ Wembley on 13:24 - Jul 15 with 5659 views | daveB |
sounds as horrific as it looked |  | | |
| My Euro 2020 Final experience @ Wembley on 13:34 - Jul 15 with 5604 views | Hunterhoop |
I was lucky enough to get a spare ticket at face value.
It was weird.
Although we were dotted around the ground, our group of 5 (plus a ton of Kingstonian fans) met up in the pub around 2pm in Hampstead. Stayed there for a while, all good humoured, etc, and then headed down to Wembley Park tube late afternoon arriving about 5.30.
On arrival, what astonished me was the lack of stewards and Police. Wembley Park tube station was hugely overcrowded with no signage, and no stewards or police directing the flow of people. Certain parts of the station were close to being a dangerous crush until you got out through the gates.
As we went down the stairs onto Wembley Way, a few things became apparent: firstly, it was like there'd been a festival or riot as the ground was covered in broken glass, cans, bottles, plastic, and all manner of rubbish. I've never walked over such a sticky road before. After you go under the bridge we realised all the usual stalls were shut up. There was a row of 20 blokes pissing against the wall. There was zero police presence.
We had planned to spend an hour or two drinking some cans on Wembley Way soaking up the atmosphere, but it was hugely overcrowded with loads of fans doing the same but the atmosphere was certainly edgy. It was slow going walking up WW too, and after stopping by the side half way up for one can, we decided to go straight in fearing with such a crowd entry could take a while. It was also clear just listening to people that most on WW did not have tickets.
It was from here on in it became increasingly apparent the police and Wembley's stewards had lost control or simply were never in control.
There was no Covid check. None. The location at the bottom of the stairs before you reach the concourse was where it was meant to be (signs, railings, stewards, etc) but they just waved us through. Not a single person had to show anything.
There was no ticket or ID check at that point or once you went up the staircase where we just walked through a single line of coppers. It was bizarre. All the nagging instructions from the ticketing app proved to be completely irrelevant. Genuinely, it has been harder to get into Loftus Road with a ticket; at least our stewards check bags
There was zero social distancing or mask wearing (we were outside to be fair) during this whole period.
When we got to concourse we split up to enter the ground at our designated gates. Can't speak for others, but your ticket was meant to activate if you had bluetooth turned on. I did; it didn't. I had to queue up twice before it did. Once through the turnstiles you were meant to be frisked and scanned with a portable metal detector. The bloke gave a quick wave and let me through. You could have brought whatever you liked in. No drugs dogs either. When I go onto the concourse, i went for a piss (toilets your typical fog of smoke), and grabbed myself a couple of drinks as it was well over an hour to KO. I stood by pillar, 5 yards from the gates in front of the doors people were turfed out of (only place with space where i felt i had a good chance of no one knocking my beers over!).
It was like a soap opera. Every minute (no exaggeration) you saw fans running away from the gates being chased by stewards. Some England fans intervened to "assist" the stewards using tactics that would usually get them arrested for affray. There were no police. Most of the chancers were trying to tailgate through the turnstiles behind those with valid tickets. Some actually got in through the exit door others were being turfed out of. The stewards had a difficult job getting it shut. Most were caught and then aggressively thrown out by clearly overwhelmed stewards, whilst some England fans inside, who'd clearly paid a fortune for their valid tickets, let their feelings be known by adding the odd kick or punch into the commotion when someone was caught or wrestled to the ground. On the flip side I saw two lads chasing two fans and abusing them for "ratting" on some people who tried to get in without a ticket. It created a very nasty atmosphere; the sort of coked up, bouncing, but aggressive and on edge atmosphere we've all experienced at times. But whilst, most were caught, I counted about 10 fans who made it through without tickets. One group of 3 were wearing red "security jackets", which weren't real and once they reached the crowd behind the bar you could see celebrate and take them off. This was all in about a half an hour spell. I messaged a mate at the time to say i reckoned their must be easily over 1k fans in the ground without tickets when you consider how many gates there were and how long this had likely been going on for. From what I've seen and read since, I'd say more like 3-5k now. I finished my beers asap because i thought it would be a safer and more enjoyable just being in the stands.
When I went to my seat, no steward checked my ticket at all. There was nothing stopping you stand where you wanted. My row was almost full, but I was very lucky because a) it was a short row (up to the one of the corner tunnels) and b) because everyone in it was fine. Two young geordie lads to my right who couldn't hurt a fly and an old boy and his son to the left who were Villa fans. Bizarrely in the row in front of me a yard to the left was Joe Lumley with a mate of his! Took me almost 90 mins to notice. Had a brief nice chat and wished him good luck at Boro (but not to go up instead of us). He was genuinely really nice and spent the pens watching/celebrating/bemoaning them with myself and the lads to my right. Only questionable point was why he was wearing an England shirt with "Lampard" on the back...C'mon Joe.
Because of where I was in the stands, i found the atmosphere in the stands absolutely fine. But other friends i was with said there rows were fuller and there was far more fan to fan confrontation with people taking seats they didn't have tickets for. EVERYONE in the bottom tier was standing. Everyone. No steward at any point asked anyone to sit down. Just consider that the next time a steward tells you to sit down in a half empty away end at the back of the stand!
Left pretty quickly after we lost and had a nightmare getting home (2.5 hours door to door - that's why you don't hold finals at 8pm on a Sunday!), and the atmosphere the whole way back was edgy. Decided to go via Wembley Central and police had fans funneled the ridiculously long way around the station to get the London bound trains, which meant fans waiting in the rain. Took almost over 45mins. Saw a group of lads later in my journey who'd been attacked, but that could have been in a bar somewhere.
My overriding thought was that the police and stewards and completely ballsed up the managing of the event, and it became one that was, pure and simply, not child friendly. I wouldn't have been comfortable with my fiance there, let alone a child. Obviously there were a load of morons about, but 2.5 hours before kick off and they've given up on active policing, Covid checks, ID checks, and security at the gates overwhelmed. I presume holding it on a Sunday meant, when they realised they had underestimated the trouble, it was a lot harder to draft in reinforcements. But the planning didn't seem very good.
Wembley and the Met's attempts to downplay the failures is a bit embarrassing. There are 60,000 eye witness accounts. There are videos. It was a monumental failure of event management and policing. From what I've heard the blocks behind the goal were so overcrowded a crush wasn't out of the question and certain stewards were voicing their concerns on this to fans to deter others from entering those blocks.
Genuinely was surprised at how badly handled it was. And I'm not blaming stewards on minimum wage. It felt they had been left stranded to handle it all. It was Wembley Ops and the Met's failure. |  | | |
| My Euro 2020 Final experience @ Wembley on 13:37 - Jul 15 with 5583 views | stowmarketrange |
I’m sooooo glad I never paid the £1400 for a ticket after all.There we’re idiots throwing traffic cones up in the air in the afternoon.Do these scum even know about the law of gravity.
I’m pretty sure there would’ve been fans that had their tickets pinched by other ticketless fans,or pickpocketed.
You can have a good experience drinking alcohol,but some of these people went way too far.And it was the same all across the country.What a shame that it turned sour for so many innocent people caught up in it. |  | | |
| My Euro 2020 Final experience @ Wembley on 13:37 - Jul 15 with 5583 views | Logman |
My goodness. Add the racism into that and it seems that football is going backwards. The legacy of the Euro's is poor, in my opinion. The FA need to get the drunken yobs playing the game at grass roots level and not simply just drinking and then watching the games (I use the term 'watching' loosely as many are incapable of that). Can't see things changing though while money and consumerism dictate things. | | | |
| My Euro 2020 Final experience @ Wembley on 13:45 - Jul 15 with 5521 views | BAWHoops |
What's mad is that this sounds so different to the Germany and Denmark games which were two of the greatest football experiences I've ever had!
Wembley way was like a party those days. people singing and enjoying themselves and felt like a real community. Everyone excited and grateful to be there.
Covid checks took place, tickets checks took place... the whole lot.
How could they have got it so wrong for the final |  |
| http://blogandwhitehoops.wordpress.com/ |
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| My Euro 2020 Final experience @ Wembley on 13:59 - Jul 15 with 5474 views | thame_hoops |
| My Euro 2020 Final experience @ Wembley on 13:45 - Jul 15 by BAWHoops |
What's mad is that this sounds so different to the Germany and Denmark games which were two of the greatest football experiences I've ever had!
Wembley way was like a party those days. people singing and enjoying themselves and felt like a real community. Everyone excited and grateful to be there.
Covid checks took place, tickets checks took place... the whole lot.
How could they have got it so wrong for the final |
this was my understanding too and although i was rushing i had 'fear of missing out' on the pre match atmosphere and was tempted to leave Wimbledon when Joker broke serve in 4th set, so glad i didn't leave early. Incidentally, the tennis was one of my most favorite sporting events ever, coincided later with my worst! | | | |
| My Euro 2020 Final experience @ Wembley on 14:00 - Jul 15 with 5471 views | thame_hoops |
| My Euro 2020 Final experience @ Wembley on 13:34 - Jul 15 by Hunterhoop |
I was lucky enough to get a spare ticket at face value.
It was weird.
Although we were dotted around the ground, our group of 5 (plus a ton of Kingstonian fans) met up in the pub around 2pm in Hampstead. Stayed there for a while, all good humoured, etc, and then headed down to Wembley Park tube late afternoon arriving about 5.30.
On arrival, what astonished me was the lack of stewards and Police. Wembley Park tube station was hugely overcrowded with no signage, and no stewards or police directing the flow of people. Certain parts of the station were close to being a dangerous crush until you got out through the gates.
As we went down the stairs onto Wembley Way, a few things became apparent: firstly, it was like there'd been a festival or riot as the ground was covered in broken glass, cans, bottles, plastic, and all manner of rubbish. I've never walked over such a sticky road before. After you go under the bridge we realised all the usual stalls were shut up. There was a row of 20 blokes pissing against the wall. There was zero police presence.
We had planned to spend an hour or two drinking some cans on Wembley Way soaking up the atmosphere, but it was hugely overcrowded with loads of fans doing the same but the atmosphere was certainly edgy. It was slow going walking up WW too, and after stopping by the side half way up for one can, we decided to go straight in fearing with such a crowd entry could take a while. It was also clear just listening to people that most on WW did not have tickets.
It was from here on in it became increasingly apparent the police and Wembley's stewards had lost control or simply were never in control.
There was no Covid check. None. The location at the bottom of the stairs before you reach the concourse was where it was meant to be (signs, railings, stewards, etc) but they just waved us through. Not a single person had to show anything.
There was no ticket or ID check at that point or once you went up the staircase where we just walked through a single line of coppers. It was bizarre. All the nagging instructions from the ticketing app proved to be completely irrelevant. Genuinely, it has been harder to get into Loftus Road with a ticket; at least our stewards check bags
There was zero social distancing or mask wearing (we were outside to be fair) during this whole period.
When we got to concourse we split up to enter the ground at our designated gates. Can't speak for others, but your ticket was meant to activate if you had bluetooth turned on. I did; it didn't. I had to queue up twice before it did. Once through the turnstiles you were meant to be frisked and scanned with a portable metal detector. The bloke gave a quick wave and let me through. You could have brought whatever you liked in. No drugs dogs either. When I go onto the concourse, i went for a piss (toilets your typical fog of smoke), and grabbed myself a couple of drinks as it was well over an hour to KO. I stood by pillar, 5 yards from the gates in front of the doors people were turfed out of (only place with space where i felt i had a good chance of no one knocking my beers over!).
It was like a soap opera. Every minute (no exaggeration) you saw fans running away from the gates being chased by stewards. Some England fans intervened to "assist" the stewards using tactics that would usually get them arrested for affray. There were no police. Most of the chancers were trying to tailgate through the turnstiles behind those with valid tickets. Some actually got in through the exit door others were being turfed out of. The stewards had a difficult job getting it shut. Most were caught and then aggressively thrown out by clearly overwhelmed stewards, whilst some England fans inside, who'd clearly paid a fortune for their valid tickets, let their feelings be known by adding the odd kick or punch into the commotion when someone was caught or wrestled to the ground. On the flip side I saw two lads chasing two fans and abusing them for "ratting" on some people who tried to get in without a ticket. It created a very nasty atmosphere; the sort of coked up, bouncing, but aggressive and on edge atmosphere we've all experienced at times. But whilst, most were caught, I counted about 10 fans who made it through without tickets. One group of 3 were wearing red "security jackets", which weren't real and once they reached the crowd behind the bar you could see celebrate and take them off. This was all in about a half an hour spell. I messaged a mate at the time to say i reckoned their must be easily over 1k fans in the ground without tickets when you consider how many gates there were and how long this had likely been going on for. From what I've seen and read since, I'd say more like 3-5k now. I finished my beers asap because i thought it would be a safer and more enjoyable just being in the stands.
When I went to my seat, no steward checked my ticket at all. There was nothing stopping you stand where you wanted. My row was almost full, but I was very lucky because a) it was a short row (up to the one of the corner tunnels) and b) because everyone in it was fine. Two young geordie lads to my right who couldn't hurt a fly and an old boy and his son to the left who were Villa fans. Bizarrely in the row in front of me a yard to the left was Joe Lumley with a mate of his! Took me almost 90 mins to notice. Had a brief nice chat and wished him good luck at Boro (but not to go up instead of us). He was genuinely really nice and spent the pens watching/celebrating/bemoaning them with myself and the lads to my right. Only questionable point was why he was wearing an England shirt with "Lampard" on the back...C'mon Joe.
Because of where I was in the stands, i found the atmosphere in the stands absolutely fine. But other friends i was with said there rows were fuller and there was far more fan to fan confrontation with people taking seats they didn't have tickets for. EVERYONE in the bottom tier was standing. Everyone. No steward at any point asked anyone to sit down. Just consider that the next time a steward tells you to sit down in a half empty away end at the back of the stand!
Left pretty quickly after we lost and had a nightmare getting home (2.5 hours door to door - that's why you don't hold finals at 8pm on a Sunday!), and the atmosphere the whole way back was edgy. Decided to go via Wembley Central and police had fans funneled the ridiculously long way around the station to get the London bound trains, which meant fans waiting in the rain. Took almost over 45mins. Saw a group of lads later in my journey who'd been attacked, but that could have been in a bar somewhere.
My overriding thought was that the police and stewards and completely ballsed up the managing of the event, and it became one that was, pure and simply, not child friendly. I wouldn't have been comfortable with my fiance there, let alone a child. Obviously there were a load of morons about, but 2.5 hours before kick off and they've given up on active policing, Covid checks, ID checks, and security at the gates overwhelmed. I presume holding it on a Sunday meant, when they realised they had underestimated the trouble, it was a lot harder to draft in reinforcements. But the planning didn't seem very good.
Wembley and the Met's attempts to downplay the failures is a bit embarrassing. There are 60,000 eye witness accounts. There are videos. It was a monumental failure of event management and policing. From what I've heard the blocks behind the goal were so overcrowded a crush wasn't out of the question and certain stewards were voicing their concerns on this to fans to deter others from entering those blocks.
Genuinely was surprised at how badly handled it was. And I'm not blaming stewards on minimum wage. It felt they had been left stranded to handle it all. It was Wembley Ops and the Met's failure. |
agree with all of that.
aha so that's how the digital pens' worked, bluetooth. | | | |
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| My Euro 2020 Final experience @ Wembley on 14:07 - Jul 15 with 5436 views | Logman |
The Germany and Denmark games were midweek and not when people had been drinking all day. | | | |
| My Euro 2020 Final experience @ Wembley on 14:14 - Jul 15 with 5399 views | derbyhoop |
You have to have some sympathy with the stewards, who are on minimum wage (or less). They will never have been trained to cope with a drunken mob. Especially where police are standing around watching and doing nothing.
These championships showed the best and the worst of people.
We watched with our French neighbours, having taken some gentle ribbing in the build up.
No tears, no tantrums. Just disappointment.
FWIW - I went to 2 games in Marseille during Euros 2016. I was happy to avoid any England games as I had a good idea how badly some of the fans would have behaved. |  |
| Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the Earth all one’s lifetime. (Mark Twain)
Find me on twitter @derbyhoop |
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| My Euro 2020 Final experience @ Wembley on 14:16 - Jul 15 with 5394 views | Toast_R |
Unbeievable failure from whichever authority were supposed to take charge. I heard somewhere that the FA had to turn the running of the Stadium over to UEFA for the events. I'm not sure if that's true and if so, how that would have an effect on the usual running of the stadium but clearly, something went catastrophically wrong in and around Wembley.
Sorry you guys had to live through it and what should have been a once in a life time experience for all the right reasons, turned out to be anything but.
My God, we all know there's idiots that go to football, luckily at QPR we seldom experience it being crap most of the time so it tends not to attract the wrong kind of people that often. The worst I think I can remember was the odd Cardiff and Millwall match but that really was a small minority of numbskulls. Sunday sounds like a whole army of the c*nts were out in force. Shameful. |  | | |
| My Euro 2020 Final experience @ Wembley on 14:40 - Jul 15 with 5192 views | Rs_Holy |
"i think this has really dented our chances for 2030"... My thoughts exactly but do we really want the World Cup after the events on Sunday? |  | | |
| My Euro 2020 Final experience @ Wembley on 14:48 - Jul 15 with 5127 views | Boston |
Tickets, we don’t need no stinking tickets! | |
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| My Euro 2020 Final experience @ Wembley on 14:49 - Jul 15 with 5125 views | stowmarketrange |
| My Euro 2020 Final experience @ Wembley on 14:40 - Jul 15 by Rs_Holy |
"i think this has really dented our chances for 2030"... My thoughts exactly but do we really want the World Cup after the events on Sunday? |
With any luck those scum will still be locked up in Qatar for fighting after a drinking session next year.But of course they won’t be anywhere near there. | | | |
| My Euro 2020 Final experience @ Wembley on 14:49 - Jul 15 with 5124 views | 80s_Boy |
| My Euro 2020 Final experience @ Wembley on 14:40 - Jul 15 by Rs_Holy |
"i think this has really dented our chances for 2030"... My thoughts exactly but do we really want the World Cup after the events on Sunday? |
All I would say is that we were awarded Euro 1996 in 1991 when our international fans were still a significant problem and even after Dublin '95 it wasn't taken away from us...
Sometimes money talks and a World Cup in England makes a lot of money for a lot of people. |  | | |
| My Euro 2020 Final experience @ Wembley on 15:04 - Jul 15 with 5029 views | Toast_R |
| My Euro 2020 Final experience @ Wembley on 14:49 - Jul 15 by 80s_Boy |
All I would say is that we were awarded Euro 1996 in 1991 when our international fans were still a significant problem and even after Dublin '95 it wasn't taken away from us...
Sometimes money talks and a World Cup in England makes a lot of money for a lot of people. |
Exactly right (sadly).
We assume a World Cup bid is a risk based on our moral take on it.
FIFA have zero moral standing at all. They've let slide a few thousand construction deaths in Qatar and seemingly quite happy to let Brazil and South Africa bankrupt the country whilst millions live in poverty so their officials can sit in pristine shiny stadiums comparing offshore bank balances with each other. | | | |
| My Euro 2020 Final experience @ Wembley on 15:04 - Jul 15 with 5025 views | slmrstid |
Thank you for sharing your stories - I'm genuinely sorry you had to experience all of that unpleasantness, on what should have been a seriously proud occasion for this country, no matter the end result. |  | | |
| My Euro 2020 Final experience @ Wembley on 15:09 - Jul 15 with 4996 views | daveB |
Thanks for sharing these stories, hope you both enjoyed what you could of the occasion | | | |
| My Euro 2020 Final experience @ Wembley on 15:29 - Jul 15 with 4903 views | kensalriser |
F***! So dispiriting to read. You'd think that decades of experience managing large football crowds would prevent this kind of mayhem. I wonder if they became complacent after the previous games and the fact there were so few away fans. |  |
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| My Euro 2020 Final experience @ Wembley on 15:32 - Jul 15 with 4877 views | stevec |
Said before, final should have been moved to a full house, Hungary most likely.
Quite how you are meant to social distance 66,000 fans in a 90000 stadium is anyone’s guess. Just sell the full allocation and even the most moronic of morons would realise bunking in was not an option. [Post edited 15 Jul 2021 15:33]
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| My Euro 2020 Final experience @ Wembley on 15:44 - Jul 15 with 4806 views | 80s_Boy |
| My Euro 2020 Final experience @ Wembley on 15:32 - Jul 15 by stevec |
Said before, final should have been moved to a full house, Hungary most likely.
Quite how you are meant to social distance 66,000 fans in a 90000 stadium is anyone’s guess. Just sell the full allocation and even the most moronic of morons would realise bunking in was not an option. [Post edited 15 Jul 2021 15:33]
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I've been to see Millwall play at West Ham a couple of times with some South London friends.
On both occasions there was substantial areas left empty to divide the fans but both times the Police had instructed West Ham to allow ticketless Millwall fans access the ground to prevent trouble.
Having 30,000 known empty seats allows people to know that if they get inside there'll be enough room for them. [Post edited 15 Jul 2021 15:46]
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| My Euro 2020 Final experience @ Wembley on 16:00 - Jul 15 with 4691 views | Myke |
| My Euro 2020 Final experience @ Wembley on 13:34 - Jul 15 by Hunterhoop |
I was lucky enough to get a spare ticket at face value.
It was weird.
Although we were dotted around the ground, our group of 5 (plus a ton of Kingstonian fans) met up in the pub around 2pm in Hampstead. Stayed there for a while, all good humoured, etc, and then headed down to Wembley Park tube late afternoon arriving about 5.30.
On arrival, what astonished me was the lack of stewards and Police. Wembley Park tube station was hugely overcrowded with no signage, and no stewards or police directing the flow of people. Certain parts of the station were close to being a dangerous crush until you got out through the gates.
As we went down the stairs onto Wembley Way, a few things became apparent: firstly, it was like there'd been a festival or riot as the ground was covered in broken glass, cans, bottles, plastic, and all manner of rubbish. I've never walked over such a sticky road before. After you go under the bridge we realised all the usual stalls were shut up. There was a row of 20 blokes pissing against the wall. There was zero police presence.
We had planned to spend an hour or two drinking some cans on Wembley Way soaking up the atmosphere, but it was hugely overcrowded with loads of fans doing the same but the atmosphere was certainly edgy. It was slow going walking up WW too, and after stopping by the side half way up for one can, we decided to go straight in fearing with such a crowd entry could take a while. It was also clear just listening to people that most on WW did not have tickets.
It was from here on in it became increasingly apparent the police and Wembley's stewards had lost control or simply were never in control.
There was no Covid check. None. The location at the bottom of the stairs before you reach the concourse was where it was meant to be (signs, railings, stewards, etc) but they just waved us through. Not a single person had to show anything.
There was no ticket or ID check at that point or once you went up the staircase where we just walked through a single line of coppers. It was bizarre. All the nagging instructions from the ticketing app proved to be completely irrelevant. Genuinely, it has been harder to get into Loftus Road with a ticket; at least our stewards check bags
There was zero social distancing or mask wearing (we were outside to be fair) during this whole period.
When we got to concourse we split up to enter the ground at our designated gates. Can't speak for others, but your ticket was meant to activate if you had bluetooth turned on. I did; it didn't. I had to queue up twice before it did. Once through the turnstiles you were meant to be frisked and scanned with a portable metal detector. The bloke gave a quick wave and let me through. You could have brought whatever you liked in. No drugs dogs either. When I go onto the concourse, i went for a piss (toilets your typical fog of smoke), and grabbed myself a couple of drinks as it was well over an hour to KO. I stood by pillar, 5 yards from the gates in front of the doors people were turfed out of (only place with space where i felt i had a good chance of no one knocking my beers over!).
It was like a soap opera. Every minute (no exaggeration) you saw fans running away from the gates being chased by stewards. Some England fans intervened to "assist" the stewards using tactics that would usually get them arrested for affray. There were no police. Most of the chancers were trying to tailgate through the turnstiles behind those with valid tickets. Some actually got in through the exit door others were being turfed out of. The stewards had a difficult job getting it shut. Most were caught and then aggressively thrown out by clearly overwhelmed stewards, whilst some England fans inside, who'd clearly paid a fortune for their valid tickets, let their feelings be known by adding the odd kick or punch into the commotion when someone was caught or wrestled to the ground. On the flip side I saw two lads chasing two fans and abusing them for "ratting" on some people who tried to get in without a ticket. It created a very nasty atmosphere; the sort of coked up, bouncing, but aggressive and on edge atmosphere we've all experienced at times. But whilst, most were caught, I counted about 10 fans who made it through without tickets. One group of 3 were wearing red "security jackets", which weren't real and once they reached the crowd behind the bar you could see celebrate and take them off. This was all in about a half an hour spell. I messaged a mate at the time to say i reckoned their must be easily over 1k fans in the ground without tickets when you consider how many gates there were and how long this had likely been going on for. From what I've seen and read since, I'd say more like 3-5k now. I finished my beers asap because i thought it would be a safer and more enjoyable just being in the stands.
When I went to my seat, no steward checked my ticket at all. There was nothing stopping you stand where you wanted. My row was almost full, but I was very lucky because a) it was a short row (up to the one of the corner tunnels) and b) because everyone in it was fine. Two young geordie lads to my right who couldn't hurt a fly and an old boy and his son to the left who were Villa fans. Bizarrely in the row in front of me a yard to the left was Joe Lumley with a mate of his! Took me almost 90 mins to notice. Had a brief nice chat and wished him good luck at Boro (but not to go up instead of us). He was genuinely really nice and spent the pens watching/celebrating/bemoaning them with myself and the lads to my right. Only questionable point was why he was wearing an England shirt with "Lampard" on the back...C'mon Joe.
Because of where I was in the stands, i found the atmosphere in the stands absolutely fine. But other friends i was with said there rows were fuller and there was far more fan to fan confrontation with people taking seats they didn't have tickets for. EVERYONE in the bottom tier was standing. Everyone. No steward at any point asked anyone to sit down. Just consider that the next time a steward tells you to sit down in a half empty away end at the back of the stand!
Left pretty quickly after we lost and had a nightmare getting home (2.5 hours door to door - that's why you don't hold finals at 8pm on a Sunday!), and the atmosphere the whole way back was edgy. Decided to go via Wembley Central and police had fans funneled the ridiculously long way around the station to get the London bound trains, which meant fans waiting in the rain. Took almost over 45mins. Saw a group of lads later in my journey who'd been attacked, but that could have been in a bar somewhere.
My overriding thought was that the police and stewards and completely ballsed up the managing of the event, and it became one that was, pure and simply, not child friendly. I wouldn't have been comfortable with my fiance there, let alone a child. Obviously there were a load of morons about, but 2.5 hours before kick off and they've given up on active policing, Covid checks, ID checks, and security at the gates overwhelmed. I presume holding it on a Sunday meant, when they realised they had underestimated the trouble, it was a lot harder to draft in reinforcements. But the planning didn't seem very good.
Wembley and the Met's attempts to downplay the failures is a bit embarrassing. There are 60,000 eye witness accounts. There are videos. It was a monumental failure of event management and policing. From what I've heard the blocks behind the goal were so overcrowded a crush wasn't out of the question and certain stewards were voicing their concerns on this to fans to deter others from entering those blocks.
Genuinely was surprised at how badly handled it was. And I'm not blaming stewards on minimum wage. It felt they had been left stranded to handle it all. It was Wembley Ops and the Met's failure. |
This and other eye-witness accounts makes me very very glad our govt stood its ground and refused to allow fans to attend matches in the Aviva. It was disappointing at the time for UEFA to pull the plug, but in hindsight it was a god-send.
I know I have been told in no uncertain terms on another thread that when it comes to covid 'nobody cares anymore', but the real outcome of the wembley carnage is not the racism, nor the physical damage, but the massive surge in Delta (or who knows, a yet unidentified variant) cases. And despite people's view to the contrary that we are all suddenly immune and therefore indestructible, more cases = more hospital cases = more ICU cases = more deaths. Watch this unfold over the next ten days or so. | | | |
| My Euro 2020 Final experience @ Wembley on 16:33 - Jul 15 with 4513 views | Juzzie |
| My Euro 2020 Final experience @ Wembley on 13:45 - Jul 15 by BAWHoops |
What's mad is that this sounds so different to the Germany and Denmark games which were two of the greatest football experiences I've ever had!
Wembley way was like a party those days. people singing and enjoying themselves and felt like a real community. Everyone excited and grateful to be there.
Covid checks took place, tickets checks took place... the whole lot.
How could they have got it so wrong for the final |
"How could they have got it so wrong for the final" - by not selling all 90,000 seats and therefore stopping people without tickets travelling thinking they could get in as there were 30,000 empty seats. |  | | |
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