was great when the bulldozers were in at
Wembley. The FA Cup final worked
well at the Millennium Stadium.
Wembley, all £757 million of it, was a
waste of resources that could have been
ploughed into grassroots. Wembley
was and is about FA ego. And because
the blazers were so naive they failed to
keep the surrounding car parks, which
disappeared under retail outlets, res-taurants and flats, making an outer
security cordon impossible.
Wembley is a dangerous stadium
from the moment fans disgorge from
Wembley Park and risk tripping down
steep steps to the alcohol avenue lead-
ing to the stadium. One of the most per-
tinent recommendations is authorities
needing to decide who is “responsible
for public safety” on Wembley Way.It shows the depraved mindset of the
6,000 fans who attempted to storm
Wembley at the Euro 2020 final that
one ticketless yob donned a high-vis
jacket and grabbed the handles of a
wheelchair, separating the disabled boy
from his father, to try to trick his way
through a gate.
Baroness Casey’s forensic report into
the mayhem of July 11 contains count-
less snapshots of the enemy at the
gates, including “disturbingly, it is clear
that ticketless fans targeted disabled
supporters in a predatory fashion near
the turnstiles”.
This particular perpetrator failed,
and the father fortunately regained
control of the hijacked wheelchair, but
between “1,776 and 1,964” ticketless
Shameful day proves
FA needs to put fans
before broadcasters
4 2GS Saturday December 4 2021 | the times
Sport Football
fans did successfully storm the gates.
Casey’s report rightly excoriates the
“mindless thugs” who descended on
Wembley, and even prints heat-maps of
the most intense drug-taking and
drinking on Wembley Way. Yet
society’s detritus spewing out of Wem-
bley Park station fuelled with arro-
gance, alcohol and opportunity, is part
of life, part of football life. It’s about
preparation and containment. Casey
should have been harder on those
charged with ensuring safety and
security on the day.
The FA let down the innocent, ticket-
holding fans by laying-off key members
of staff who were experienced in moni-
toring fans’ intentions. The FA should
have fought harder with Uefa about the
kick-off time, 8pm on a Sunday, with
England in a first final in 55 years. It
may have pleased broadcasters, domes-
tic and global, but it can’t have delighted
the police.
The Metropolitan Police also needs
to look at itself and decide why it
believed that a planned 3pm arrivaltime for its officers on Wembley was
sufficient. Is its budget big enough?
Concerned Brent Council officials, who
come out of the report and the day with
huge respect, warned from earlier in
the tournament, including from experi-
ence before the Scotland visit on June- “Some of what happened was sadly
foreseeable,” Casey writes, highlighting
a “collective failure to plan for the worst
case scenario.”
Only rain and the missed penalties
prevented a further surge of ticketless
fans at the final whistle. So did the cour-
age of individual police officers, stew-
ards, FA staff and Brent Council offi-
cers. “We were close to fatalities,” Casey
adds of the “national shame”.
Cocaine has become a problem at
games, with the drug blamed as con-
tributing to trouble when Brighton &
Hove Albion fans fought each other
and Manchester City fans in October.
Like others, this reporter was opposed
to the rebuilding of Wembley 20 years
ago because the national team belong to
the nation and the England roadshow
Henry
Winter
Chief Football
Writer