England fans raise 'serious concerns' over transport

England fans person raised "serious concerns" astir carrier delays astatine Euro 2024 aft immoderate supporters were near stranded for hours pursuing nan team's win complete Serbia connected Sunday.

Fans complained of issues getting to and from nan Arena AufSchalke successful Gelsenkirchen, Germany, pinch galore missing connecting trains aft nan crippled and immoderate alternatively opting to locomotion miles to their destination.

Thomas Concannon, spokesperson for nan Football Supporters’ Association (FSA) England fans’ embassy, said nan business was "completely unacceptable".

“The biggest rumor for america is that we were fixed beardown assurances that nan carrier strategy would beryllium tin of handling nan magnitude of England fans that were owed to arrive," Concannon told BBC Sport.

BBC Sport has contacted Uefa and nan tourney organisers for a response.

In a statement,, external section constabulary thanked fans for their "level-headed behaviour" and said "significant tailbacks" were caused because of nan ample number of supporters successful nan area.

If England advancement arsenic winners of Group C, they will return to Gelsenkirchen to look their last-16 opponents.

Concannon added that nan FSA gave organisers "as overmuch information" arsenic imaginable successful nan build-up to England's opening group game, but nan plans "didn't unrecorded up to" what was promised.

He said: "A batch of fans person raised superior concerns astir really they sewage to nan stadium, nan deficiency of carrier available, trams arriving already afloat to nan racecourse for example, which was a large spot for England fans wherever they were told to gather. So that is simply a large problem.

“But also, successful Gelsenkirchen, 3 hours aft nan crippled has vanished astatine 2 o’clock successful nan morning, it’s perfectly ridiculous. It’s wholly unacceptable. And that is purely down to nan carrier infrastructure put successful place."

BBC Sport’s Holly Bacon was successful Gelsenkirchen arsenic a instrumentality and said nan segment extracurricular nan crushed was 1 of "chaos", adding location was tons of delayed trains and "confusion complete platforms".

"There was nary signage aliases directions and really mediocre lighting," she added.

The short travel backmost to nan metropolis of Mulheim took Holly 2 and a half hours, pinch different supporters not arriving location until 04:00-05:00 section clip aft missing connections.

"Quite a fewer group staying successful Wuppertal were incapable to get backmost and had to fork retired for taxis. Really, really mediocre organisation," she said.

Andy, who had travelled pinch his son, said nan number of fans travelling backmost nan aforesaid measurement caused important problems.

"People were stepping to stations further down hoping that location mightiness beryllium abstraction connected nan adjacent train but no-one was getting off," Andy told BBC Radio 5 Live.

"They didn’t want to hold for immoderate much trains, truthful they conscionable pushed further and further on. It was dangerous, it was poorly managed. There should’ve been a batch much stewarding there."

Fellow Three Lions protagonist Jamie added nan business astatine nan last whistle was an "absolute nightmare", saying unit "were conscionable packing group connected to nan trains".

England caput to Frankfurt to look Denmark connected Thursday, and past Cologne nan pursuing Tuesday to return connected Slovenia successful their last group game.

Concannon said nan FSA will erstwhile again speak to section organisers.

“We were ever assured coming to Germany that things would spell well, truthful we dream that because of this hiccup it improves," he said.

National obstruction usability Deutsche Bahn told Reuters it and section operators had worked to summation train capacity.

"Football fans cognize that arsenic soon arsenic nan referee blows his whistle, everyone goes home. It tin get crowded connected nan platform," a spokesperson told nan news agency.