Thousands of ticketless Scotland fans are urged to stay away from Wembley amid fears of trouble if they can’t watch due to the lack of a London fan zone
- Ticketless Scotland fans have been urged to stay away from Wembley
- Scottish Football Supporters Association expects 6,000 Scots will make the trip
- The association’s founder, Paul Goodwin, questioned why there was no fan zone
- Sven Lister, part of the Roysth Tartan Army supporters club, said that not facilitating a way for fans to watch the match could bring about trouble
Ticketless Scotland fans have been urged to stay away from Wembley as thousands are set to descend on London for the England game on Friday.
The Scottish Football Supporters Association expects as many as 6,000 Scots will be making the trip south on Friday, while others say it could be 20,000 people.
All 15 of the train services going straight to London for Glasgow in time for the match were sold out by Monday, with nearly all of the 17 trains from Edinburgh also full – for standard tickets.
The association’s founder, Paul Goodwin, questioned why there was no fan zone provided for supporters without tickets in London, adding that Glasgow has one that can take 6,000 seated and socially distanced people.
He told The Times: ‘There will be plenty of tartan on display as we like coming down and showing off. The fact we have not been part of it [a major tournament] for such a long time is a factor.’
Sven Lister, part of the Roysth Tartan Army supporters club, said that not facilitating a way for fans to watch the match could bring about trouble.
Ticketless Scotland fans have been urged to stay away from Wembley as thousands are set to descend on London for the England game on Friday. Pictured: Football fans at the Fan Zone in Glasgow as they watch the Euro match between Scotland and the Czech Republic, June 14
‘I reckon there will be about 20,000 or so turning out. It just worries me that they’ve not done anything. There’s going to be groups wandering, possibly not getting to see the football, which would cause trouble,’ he told MyLondon.
But Goodwin said that Scottish fans have won awards for their friendliness and good behaviour at the previous two tournaments.
The news comes following disappointment for Scotland fans after their country lost 2-0 in their first match in a major tournament in 23 years, which saw a Czech Republic player score an extraordinary goal from the halfway line.
The game was played at Hampden Park in Glasgow in front of a socially-distanced crowd of 12,000 fans, four days before the Tartan Army head south to Wembley Stadium on Friday to play England, the Auld Enemy.
Both Czech goals came from Patrik Schick who got the opener four minutes before half-time to silence the otherwise raucous crowd as he angled a brilliant header beyond goalkeeper David Marshall’s desperate reach.
Scotland football fans at the Black Bull in the Grassmarket, Edinburgh, during their team’s opening Euro 2020 fixture yesterday
After going in 1-0 down at the break, Marshall then had his head in his hands in the 52nd minute as Schick fired a stunning 50-yard strike over his head from the halfway line to make it 2-0 with the Scots’ defence exposed.
Earlier in the afternoon, despite Hampden only being 25 per cent full, it was deafening as fans sang Flower Of Scotland just before kick-off. Scottish children watched their country play on TVs and tablets in their classrooms.
On top of the game being shown in the majority of Scots classrooms, millions of people watched in beer gardens or back gardens while 6,000 soaked up the atmosphere at a fan park in Glasgow.
Others working from home or in the office were watching at their desks. Big screens have gone up outside pubs and bars for the country’s opener.