The Football Association (FA) has urged England fans to be a “tribute to their country” in Germany this summer, amid fears that trouble could overshadow this weekend's Euro 2024 opener against Serbia.
Sunday’s Group C game in Gelsenkirchen has been categorised as “high-risk” by local authorities.
Police have concerns over a group of 500 Serbian hooligans who could look to cause trouble and the fixture is the sole match at the tournament where only low-alcohol beer will be served in an attempt to quell unrest.
England’s arrest record at the last two overseas tournaments has been excellent - two at Russia 2018 and none at Qatar 2022 - but disorder marred the Euro 2020 final at Wembley and FA chief executive Mark Bullingham has warned supporters to be on their best behaviour.
“Over the last few years, our England fans have been absolutely brilliant support to us, particularly in the stadium,” Bullingham said. “There are a lot of people going to come out here. The best thing that the fans can do to help us do well in this tournament is be a tribute to their country.
"The German police have proved they are really good at policing football tournaments so there’s no reason why that shouldn’t be the case again. But really the main message is: get behind the team and support in the right way.”
Estimates suggest as many as half-a-million England fans could make the trip to Germany across the course of the tournament. That is a huge surge on the relatively small groups that travelled to Qatar and Russia, while Euro 2020 saw England play mainly at home.
“It is an unknown,” Bullingham agreed of the new generation of young supporters set to follow their first overseas summer tournament.
“But I’d rather take the positive point of view and say our fans have been really good over the last couple of years and give the message that the best way of getting behind the team is to come our here and support them really well.”
