sport news Cocaine and booze-fuelled young England fans are a concern for German police at ... trends now
There were two senior German police officers in the room at Whitehall on Tuesday to relate that England supporters at Euro 2024 would be welcome, but songs from a drunken fringe about World War II would not.
‘You have to respect our country. It’s important that fans get information about what is acceptable,’ one of them said, pointing out that fans who persist in disorder would be fined and marched to a cashpoint, on the spot, to pay up. What was the maximum fine? he was asked. There didn’t seem to be maximum.
The presence of the Germans at a briefing staged by British police and the Foreign Office revealed how far removed the policing of this event is from Euro 2016, where the uncompromising French police simply rolled out the water cannon and unleashed it on offending supporters.
Britain’s top football police officer, Mark Roberts, has not known a level of international cooperation for a tournament to match the Germans across his ten years in the role.
Forces of both nations are bending over backwards to help any fans who consume too much ale and behave poorly avoid arrest. The Germans are welcoming with open arms the presence of British police ‘spotters’ – experienced officers who know fans and are there to step in before all hell lets loose.
German police have warned England supporters about their behaviour at the upcoming European Championship taking place in Germany this summer
Forces of both England and Germany are bending over backwards to help any fans who consume too much ale and behave poorly avoid arrest
Gareth Southgate and his England stars will be well-supported at the tournament in Germany
‘The Germans like a drink of beer just like us,’ said Roberts. ‘That minority is not that different to ours. They accept that low level of intervention.’
But there is a line and German tolerance for those who cross it has its limits. British police have not been helped one bit by the fact that a court has just inexplicably cut short a four-year banning order imposed on serial hooligan and trouble-maker Tommy Robinson, former leader of the English Defence League, freeing him to travel to the tournament.
British officers, who have 2,000 banning orders in place preventing hooligans from travelling, need Robinson in Germany like a hole in the head because the risk of
