Unfortunately I have to admit I was left quite disillusioned and with a sour taste in my mouth after yesterday.
Don’t get me wrong, Wembley is an incredible stadium and watching Denmark line-up in the semi-final was an incredible experience and the build-up beforehand in the Vinegar Yard with 400 other Danes was amazing.
But fuck me was I shocked and disappointed by the England fans behaviour yesterday. I’ve never been to an England game before, or Wembley for that matter, so I had an idea of what to expect but was not prepared for the amount of abuse or aggression the Danish fans were met with.
Along the Wembley Way England fans were throwing full pint tins of San Miguel at us, one of which hit a Danish girl. Another incident was when a fully grown man went up to an 11 year old boy and his mum and shouted ‘YOUR TEAM ARE SHIT!!!’ in the little boys face. When I was at Tower Bridge waiting for the tube there was a group of England fans standing a little way down from me and I said “Here’s to a good game today boys!” and gave them a thumbs up and they just told me to “Fuck off, Denmark are shit”. Before heading to the Vinegar Yard, me and some friends were stood outside The Shard waiting for some other friends, just in a good mood and happy and excited but minding ourselves and staying out of the way and it was nothing but “FUUUUCK DENMARK YOU’RE SHIT!!!” and “BOOOOOOOOO DENMARK BOOOOOOOOO”. There were England fans who snuck into the Danish section and started squaring up to Danes when we scored etc.
Really disappointed that everything I’ve read and heard about England fans was true and if not worse than I could have expected. I’ve lived in England for 17 years and I feel a great amount of love towards England and the English, but this was truly beyond the pale and I am left feeling very upset at the treatment that myself and Danish fans were subjected to. We weren’t being belligerent or aggressive, we were just laughing, in a good mood, sharing beers with people, trying to have a good time and enjoy our small country in a semi-final but for some reason that was entirely unacceptable to the England fans.
I think it hurts a bit more because I’ve lived in the UK for so long, and to see English people treating me and other Danes like that really hit a sore spot.
I will never be able to support or root for England until English fans sort their shit out and learn to behave with civility. International football tournaments are supposed to be about international fans having a party together, not throwing beer bottles at girls and screaming at children.