German police are prepared for the threat of serious crowd trouble here in Munich tonight, after hundreds of England fans bought tickets in the home end at the Allianz Arena.
England have an allocation of 3,466 tickets for tonight’s Nations League match, but around 5,000 are thought to have travelled to Munich and hundreds have purchased tickets in the German end. Amid fears of crowd trouble, 700 police officers have launched a major security operation and reports in Germany state they are “ready for action”.
England manager Gareth Southgate has urged England fans not to “embarrass” the nation.
Ahead of the fixture, 880 known English troublemakers have given up passports and there are 1,122 banning orders in effect.
As of Tuesday morning, it was still possible to buy tickets in the home end on the German FA’s website.
Fans have been able to purchase tickets simply by registering as Germany supporters on their federation’s official ticket portal and using their hotel addresses to complete the process.
The Times reports that they purchased a ticket among German fans yesterday for about £40 simply using a German hotel address with a UK bank card and email address, showing the ease of the process.
England fans with tickets in the home end could be denied entry and local police have said they are on alert for potential disorder.
Some officers will be equipped with riot gear at the stadium, while others will be stationed around the city, where it is predicted trouble may occur.
The FA will be hoping there is no crowd trouble after the scenes that marred the Euro 2020 Final at Wembley last summer.
As a result of that, England face Italy behind closed doors at Molineux on Saturday. A second game behind closed doors was suspended for two years, but trouble tonight would risk triggering that sanction.
The FA will also want to avoid a repeat of the embarrassing scenes the last time England played in Germany, in 2017, when some fans sang anti-German war songs during a match in Dortmund.
England supporters were contacted by the FA on Sunday and reminded of their behaviour.
England fans have been arriving in Munich since Sunday and local police have told Standard Sport that, so far, there has been minimal trouble.
Three England fans were arrested last night for making Nazi salutes, but have since been released.
There was another incident last night involving a small fight outside a restaurant, but no arrests were made. Police were also called to an Irish pub, where 450 fans were drinking, but again no arrests were made. There was a minor incident involving a man on an e-scooter crashing into a parked car.
Officers will be stationed around the city today and tonight, while a ban on glass bottles has also been enforced in the city centre and fans will be fined if they are found in possession of one.
