Mixed fortunes

Support: The fans in full voice against France

Taking an elongated route through Istanbul, I thought I would not meet so many England fans en route to the Ukraine. How wrong I was.

They packed out the sports bar at the airport, as they watched Ireland get beaten by Croatia.

The flight was, to put it positively, boisterous. To put it negatively, though, some of the fans’ abuse of the flight attendants was shameful.

England fans tend to reach both extremes. Having photos taken with the police as they exchange pleasantries and gifts brings a smile to the face. Seeing fans shout sexual and racial abuse towards anyone who gets in their way undoes all the good work of the majority. 

After all the build up surrounding racial prejudice in the Ukraine, it came as a surprise to hear the first chants of this nature coming from an English contingent on the flight over from Istanbul.

Anyway, on the day of the game things were much calmer throughout the industrial town of Donetsk as most of the support decided to chill out in the shade provided by the huge tents in and around the fan zone.

The rest congregated at the Golden Lion pub where they mixed well with the French supporters who had braved the conditions to enter into the zone where they knew the England fans would hang out. ‘Where were you in World War II’ chants were shouted across the bar whilst the French riposte of ‘Ooh ah, Cantona’ bemused this observer.

As the crowd left the English pub the first sign of trouble reared its ugly head as half a dozen Russian fans (The Russian border is just 100 kilometres away), wearing CCCP t-shirts, charged through where the England fans were walking and attacked an equally small group of supporters, proceeding to kick and punch some whilst they struggled on the ground. The incident was over in a matter of minutes and no one, thankfully, appeared seriously injured but there was the disturbing sight of policemen stood watching as the events unfolded.

The stadium was conveniently located just fifteen minutes on foot from the town centre and once inside the Donbass arena the English contingent soon found their voice. It was great to hear their support of the new England manager with frequent chants of ‘Roy Hodgson’s barmy army’ but the chalk and cheese element returned with other songs about ten German bombers and ‘We’re going home in a coffin’, in reference to Sol Campbell’s comments.

The game passed by fairly peacefully. Of course there was a delirious response to England’s goal, before realism returned when Samir Nasri equalised for the French.

And this in itself paraphrased everything you need to know about English football fans. Delirium followed by realism. Optimism followed by pessimism. Good humoured followed by poor taste. Welcome to Euro 2012.