FA To Conduct A Review After Fans Break Into Wembley For Final
The FA will be conducting a full review after a large number of England fans tried to force their way in to Wembley without tickets ahead of the Euro 2020 final. Fans forced down barriers, and metal fencing, pushed and shoved both stewards and police as they attempted to break through gates, with quite a significant number successfully gaining access to the inner circles of the stadia.
Wembley is quite unique to many stadia, which are now chosen to host major finals, in the fact that it resides within quite a densely built up area on some sides, meaning initial access is actually quite close to the ground itself.
The demand for tickets was always going to outstrip supply. The decision had been made not to increase the capacity past the 60,000 mark, and tickets were always going to be snapped up by the wrong hands with some being sold on resale sites for 10 times the face value and more for the showpiece event! However, as has been witnessed several times for major finals at Wembley, ticketless fans will always attempt to gain entry, albeit not in the numbers witnessed on Sunday evening.
The police and stewards were over-run, with the barriers and security implementations too weak to withstand the pressure from the sustained and growing numbers of England fans desperate to force their way through the perceived weaknesses. The 8 o’clock kick off will not have assisted with many fans buoyed by many hours of alcohol, but in the end it did come down to the security at certain entry points just being overwhelmed.
The Metropolitan Police said it worked with security to prevent breaches but ultimately they were also outnumbered in areas around the ground.
FA chief executive Mark Bullingham apologised to legitimate fans who were affected and said the security team had "never seen anything like it". He added, "There were a large number of drunken yobs trying to force their way in, we run a stadium not a fortress… I have to apologise to any fans whose experience was affected and any of the team who had to cope with this." He confirmed the FA would work with the police to ban anyone who had forced their way in and to prevent such an event happening again.
Downing Street has also criticised those who stormed the stadium without tickets. The prime minister's official spokesman said: "Those scenes were unacceptable and we condemn violence, anti-social behaviour and abuse in the strongest possible terms."
