Gareth Southgate warns fans to behave as England gear up for friendly with world champions Germany
With England hosting Germany at Wembley tomorrow, Southgate and the Football Association are desperate to avoid a repeat of March’s embarrassing scenes
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Your support makes all the difference.Gareth Southgate has told any fans who taunt Germany about World War II that they do not represent his England team.
With England hosting Germany at Wembley tomorrow, Southgate and the Football Association are desperate to avoid a repeat of March’s embarrassing scenes, when some England fans sang the inflammatory ’10 German bombers’ song and even performed Nazi salutes.
The FA have given life bans to some fans and suspended more from the England Supporters’ Club, and are now demanding there is nothing like that at Wembley on Friday night.
After that game in March, Southgate was asked about the behaviour of the England fans but gave an equivocal answer. He admitted at his press conference at St George’s Park this morning that he should have been firmer and told the minority of England fans who do sing about the war that their behaviour is “totally unacceptable”.
“I was asked about this immediately after the game in Dortmund and, to be honest, I wasn't aware at the time what had been said, it was hearsay,” Southgate said. “So I wasn’t as strong as I’d liked to have been on it, really.”
“It's unacceptable, completely unacceptable,” Southgate said of the Nazi taunts. “We have a huge percentage of fans who follow us brilliantly. We experienced that in Lithuania, when we went over to the supporters at the end of the game.
“But an element, things that were shouted that night, were totally unacceptable. We've moved on from those times, or should have moved on from those times. They don’t represent us as a team, the people who do that.”
Southgate emphasised that his issue is only with a small minority of England fans, while the vast majority conduct themselves properly. “I want to be very specific, because I don’t want it to be ‘our fans’ as a collective, we're talking about individuals,” Southgate said.
“The massive majority of supporters are brilliant.” Southgate added that he was grateful for Germany agreeing that their players will wear poppy armbands – along with England players – on Friday night. “To add to that, Germany have taken a huge step in agreeing to wear the poppy in this fixture,” he said, “so that should be noted and appreciated what they’re doing.”
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