England fans set to infiltrate Germany home end
Worries that there will be crowd unrest when England play Germany in Munich on Thursday have been triggered by reports of traveling Three Lions fans managing to secure tickets in the home end.
British newspaper The Times say that it is believed up to 2,000 ticketless fans have made the trip for the Nations League tie at the Allianz Arena.
As England were only allocated 3,466 tickets for the game, however, their fans have managed to secure some of the other 17,000 tickets still available in the 70,000-seater stadium by registering as German football supporters and using their hotel accommodation as a German address on the website of the local football federation known as the DFB.
This has meant that England fans have been able to gain access to the match for around £40 ($50) despite using UK bank cards and email accounts, and German authorities believe the loophole is being used by large groups who have booked seats together in blocks as big as 50 while using WhatsApp to co-ordinate their operation.
Despite an alcohol ban inside the stadium, England fans sitting alongside their German counterparts en masse in the home end is thought of as a potential recipe for disaster considering the historical footballing rivalry between the two teams.
Furthermore, the DFB is attempting to cancel tickets bought in this illegal manner but could run into problems separating hotel addresses from residential properties. Elsewhere, Three Lions manager Gareth Southgate has warned that any crowd trouble could have a negative effect on his squad in what will be their first major trip overseas in front of a full house since before the pandemic.
"You are embarrassed when you hear about it, because you know it's a representation of your country, in the same way there's been a brilliant representation of that across the world in the last couple of days," Southgate said.
Southgate added that the team is "always conscious" of potential skirmishes and that England – who have already received a two-game ban to play behind closed doors with one match suspended following trouble on the day of the Euro 2020 final last summer – have to send out the "correct messages" and "rely on people behaving themselves".
