Thousands of fans will travel to Germany this weekend to watch England’s Euro 2024 campaign get underway, but police have warned to expect violence.
England will hope to avenge their loss to Italy in the Euro 2020 final by getting their campaign in this year’s competition off to a winning start on Sunday.
They face Serbia at the Arena AufSchalke, home to German side Schalke, with kick off at 8pm BST.
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Around 40,000 English fans are expected at the match, with between 5,000 and 8,000 Serbian supporters shouting for the opposition.
But, ahead of the game, German police have issued a warning to travelling fans, saying that they expect up to 500 hooligans to try to cause violence with English supporters at the Euro 2024 fixture.
Speaking exclusively to The Guardian, Peter Both, chief of police in Gelsenkirchen, said that he hopes to intercept the hooligans before they reach the match, which has been designated ‘high-risk’ by UEFA.
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Both said: “I guess the biggest challenge for us will be to identify violent, disruptive groups at an early stage, to separate them from peaceful and law-abiding fans, that will be our biggest challenge.”
Over 1600 English fans with banning orders have been forced to surrender their passports for the duration of the European Championships in an attempt to prevent them travelling to the games.
This decision was made as part of the cooperation between German and UK authorities, which Both labelled as “brilliant”
However, he will prepare for the worst, with some fans no doubt making their way to Germany.
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“A few of them will be here in Germany, I’m absolutely convinced,” he added.
More than 1,000 German police officers will work alongside hooligan spotters and a riot unit to police the match on Sunday and temporary checks will be implemented on the country’s borders from Friday.
Fans inside the arena will be limited to two drinks at a time, and will not be able to bring them into the stands.
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Other travelling fans without a ticket will be encouraged to take a free shuttle bus to a fanzone which has been set up at the nearby Trabrennbahn racecourse, with the city centre not equipped to deal with the expected number of supporters.
Ben McCrum