Euro 2024: Despite fears of hooliganism, German and British police work together to ensure a “safe and smooth” tournament

CNN
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British police say they are working with their German counterparts to ensure a “safe and smooth” Euro 2024 – the European football tournament that takes place from June 14 to July 14 – for English fans. There are fears that Serbian hooligans will target their national team’s opening match in Group C on Sunday.

As the Guardian first reported on Tuesday, the police chief of Gelsenkirchen – the city where England will play against Serbia – said they expected up to 500 hooligans to try to spark violence.

“UK officials enjoy a good working relationship with German police, which has developed from cooperation at a number of high-profile football tournaments and matches in the past,” the UK Football Policing Unit said in a statement to CNN.

“We continue to work closely with the German police to ensure that travelling English fans have a safe and smooth Euro 2024 tournament.”

Up to 40,000 English and 8,000 Serbian fans are expected to travel to Gelsenkirchen for a match that European football’s governing body UEFA and German police have classified as a “high-risk match”.

In total, around 300,000 English fans will travel to Germany during the tournament. According to CNN, around 2,000 stadium bans against fans are currently in force, according to British police.

German police told CNN they were “preparing for the possibility that violent hooligans could be in the city area,” but added they “currently have no information to confirm this.”

“The upcoming football match between Serbia and England is considered a high-risk match. Accordingly, we will deploy more personnel than for less critical matches. The Gelsenkirchen police will be supported by police forces from the entire state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

“As part of their preparations, the Gelsenkirchen police are in close contact with the English and Serbian authorities. Communication with the English police in particular is excellent, and there is a constant exchange of information about disruptive events.”

The Serbian Football Association and the Serbian Interior Ministry did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.

At the 2016 European Championships in France, England’s opening match against Russia in Marseille was marred by violence between the two groups of fans, resulting in numerous injuries and arrests.

According to Reuters, an estimated 2.7 million people will come to Germany for the 2024 European Championship, and large fan zones will be set up in all major cities.

The 2024 European Championship begins on Friday with the match between hosts Germany and Scotland.

It is safe to say that the expectations of the German national team in the host country are not high.

Poor form and performance led the association to sack head coach Hansi Flick in September 2023 and bring in Julian Nagelsmann.

Even now, it continues to be a bumpy ride for former Bayern coach Nagelsmann; recent impressive victories away in France and at home against the Netherlands were preceded by defeats in Austria and at home against Turkey.

But some German fans are now dreaming of a secondSummer fairytaleor “summer fairytale”, that is how the summer of 2006 is called, when Germany unexpectedly reached the semi-finals of the home World Cup despite similarly low expectations.

However, a recent survey conducted by ARD found that 27 percent of Germans have no interest in the 2024 European Championship. Only 43 percent said they were very interested.

Germany has won many major tournaments in its history, winning four World Cups and three European Championships, but recently it has been harder to achieve success.

The national team has not won a knockout match at a major tournament in almost eight years, having been eliminated in the group stage at the two previous World Cups and in the round of 16 at the 2020 European Championships.

However, once the burden of expectations is lifted, perhaps another “Summer fairytale‘ is a distinct possibility.

France and England go into the tournament as the two favorites to win the “Henri Delaunay Cup”.

The blue have been one of the dominant forces in world football in recent years, winning the 2018 World Cup and reaching the final in 2022. However, in their last European Championship appearance, France surprisingly lost to Switzerland on penalties in the round of 16.

Didier Deschamps has been coach of the national team since 2012 and last January extended his contract until 2026. Deschamps, who captained France to triumph at the 1998 World Cup and the 2000 European Championship, also led the team to victory in the 2020-21 Nations League and to the final of the 2016 European Championship.

The current squad boasts an absurd amount of talent. The experience of Kylian Mbappé, Olivier Giroud and Antoine Griezmann is backed up by the latest generation of stars. Bradley Barcola, Warren Zaïre-Emery and Eduardo Camavinga are just some of the talented youngsters to emerge from France’s seemingly never-ending talent pool.

“I want to win the European Championship. I have to be honest. I won the World Cup. I won the Nations League. That’s the only thing I was missing from the national team after doing everything with the national team,” Mbappé recently told CNN.

“I really want to win this. It’s my first competition as captain so this is really important for me and it’s always important for the country and we want them to be proud of us. (It’s) another opportunity to write the history of my country.”

The current England team is similarly – if not more – brimming with talent and is rightly confident that it can end the 58 years of disappointment since it last won a major trophy at the 1966 World Cup.

Harry Kane remains one of the best strikers in the world and is supported by an all-star line-up that includes Phil Foden, Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice, while Jude Bellingham’s emergence as one of the best young players in the world adds an extra dimension to England’s midfield.

Coach Gareth Southgate has been in charge for eight years now and has had more success than any of his predecessors since that single World Cup victory. During his tenure, England reached the semi-finals of the World Cup and the final of the 2020 European Championship, but has so far failed to end the national team’s drought.

Southgate’s contract expires in December and the English Football Association is reportedly interested in extending it, but the Englishman told CNN last month that the decision was “up to me”.

“Of course we were so close at the last European Championship,” said Southgate. “We were just one penalty away from becoming European champions and we only conceded one goal. So the players know how close we are.”

“When you’ve been so close… you have to take the final step at the end.”

Hungary was considered by many to be the surprise candidate of the tournament after qualifying for the European Championship for the third year in a row.

Led by Liverpool midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai, who will become the youngest captain in Euro history in Germany, this impressive Hungarian side went through qualifying unbeaten, conceding just seven goals in eight games.

The team also finished second in their Nations League group, which also included Italy, Germany and England, conceding just five goals in six matches. Defence will clearly be key to any Hungarian success at Euro 2024.

“I have no expectations of anyone or of the team,” Szoboszlai told UEFA. “We know exactly what we are capable of; we know what we have achieved so far against other national teams.”

“I don’t want to put pressure on the team, nor do I want the outside world to put pressure on us. But if we feel pressure, we can help each other to enjoy the EURO.”

“It’s no small feat to be there. But we have a very good team. It’s like a big family and together we can achieve anything.”

Ukraine is taking part in the European Championship for the fourth time in a row and, after a solid qualification, also has the chance to cause a stir in Germany.

The team narrowly missed out on automatic qualification after losing their head-to-head match against Italy, but fought through difficult playoff matches against Bosnia and Herzegovina and Iceland, winning both games 2-1 to reach the finals.

Each of these victories is particularly significant given Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine; this is the first major tournament for which Ukraine has qualified since the invasion began.

With players like Oleksandr Zinchenko, Andriy Lunin and Mykhailo Mudryk playing for some of Europe’s biggest clubs, and with Artem Dovbyk emerging as Spain’s most accurate striker, Ukraine should be confident of at least progressing from a forgiving group containing Belgium, Slovakia and Romania.