Ring of steel for women’s final is overkill and unnecessary

YOU would have thought there might be a different kind of experience this weekend at Wembley, after a sublime month of European football which has revealed that the build-up does not have to be about excessive beer intake, high tension and casual abuse. Not so. The FA revealed yesterday that a large police turnout and ‘enhanced security presence’ would be necessary for England’s final against Germany. It is a return to football as we have come to know it, to read the details of an ‘uplift in policing’ within the stadium, reinforcements around turnstiles and stewards enforcing a drinking ban. The ‘ring of steel’ as they know it in the men’s game.

It’s overkill. It’s not necessary. The closest Wembley has got to anti-social behaviour at a women’s game was Chelsea fans throwing objects at the Arsenal contingent on the way to last December’s FA Cup final. The entire policing culture of these Euros has been light. Parents have been strolling to the matches with their kids. The Railway Hotel on Bramall Lane was rocking to the sound of both England and Sweden fans after Tuesday’s semi-final. The lamentable truth, of course, is that the boneheads who turned last summer’s men’s final against Italy into a war zone have left the football

authorities petrified of a repeat. Wembley will be sold out, it is England against Germany, and there is a risk that the hooligans just won’t be able to help themselves.

People are holding their breath. No one will take a risk. So although the last month has told us that things can actually be different, here is what the intellectually challenged responsible for last July’s Wembley madness have lumbered us with. Bulletproof vests, riot vans and shields all kept within reach. A grim return to football normality.