UEFA snub police bid to avoid Prague fan trouble

UEFA have ignored pleas from British police to reschedule England’s Euro 2020 qualifier against the Czech Republic in Prague amid fears of hooliganism. England supporters risk disrupting FA plans for Euro 2020, for which London is a host city, if they cause trouble in the Czech capital around Friday night’s game. Given the possibility of hooliganism in Prague — a renowned ‘stag do’ destination — UEFA will be watching the behaviour of England fans closely. Alcohol-fuelled incidents have marred recent England trips to Germany, Holland and Portugal. The fact the clash will be played late on a Friday poses obvious policing difficulties at the start of a weekend. Deputy chief constable Mark Roberts, the National Police Chiefs’ Council football policing lead, had written to UEFA in an attempt to have the game moved, but the governing body rejected his request. ‘It’s the Friday nights, the consumption of alcohol. It is a UEFA tournament, so they would say they’ve set the fixtures,’ said Roberts. ‘I wrote to UEFA asking them to reconsider the Friday night kick-off. That’s not something we’ve been able to do. We’re going to take that up again with UEFA. ‘If it came to it in the UK, if we had real concerns about the scheduling of a game, then potentially we could seek to impose conditions via a safety advisory group. ‘We’d be loath to do that but ultimately, if UEFA aren’t willing to have the dialogue and the police force thought there was a real risk of disorder, we could impose conditions about the kick-off.’ The FA have been pro-active in trying to eradicate anti-social behaviour on England trips, launching their ‘Don’t be that idiot’ campaign. Ahead of Friday’s clash and next Monday’s match against Bulgaria in Sofia, the FA are urging supporters to ‘Report that idiot’ if they see fans behaving unacceptably. Anyone witnessing anti-social behaviour can email englandsupportersclub@thefa.com or call +44 7970 146250.