England

[Mattyblue]

They really weren’t up to about twenty years ago.

The disintegration of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia into twenty odd states, plus giving status to the likes of Gibraltar has brought in a plethora of mostly average to poor teams now filling up groups whilst at the same time expanding the tournaments - as an example there were 8 teams at Euro 92, but 24 at Euro 2016, so of course it’s far easier to qualify.

[matt83]

I went to the game on Monday night. I used to watch England regularly but I’d not been for a good while. I was astonished by how many women and children were there, certainly from my vantage point in the Stretford end upper I’d go as far as to say the majority. I took the 10 year old so people in glass houses and that.

On the one hand it’s nice people feel comfortable these days to make watching England a family day out but the trade off is women and children will never make for a good atmosphere. I partially stopped going regularly after they built the new Wembley as I felt they were selling out to tourists and day trippers. Looks like they ultimately did. A family in front of me who all watched the game through their phones, all had horns and not one had the foggiest about the rules of the game. 

[Mattyblue]

Far better atmosphere than Wembley England games I’ve read a fair bit this week… so think yourself lucky!

[matt83]

1 minute ago, Mattyblue said:

Far better atmosphere than Wembley England games I’ve read a fair bit this week… so think yourself lucky!

Yeah that’s what I feared and speaks volumes. 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

2 hours ago, Mattyblue said:

They really weren’t up to about twenty years ago.

The disintegration of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia into twenty odd states, plus giving status to the likes of Gibraltar has brought in a plethora of mostly average to poor teams now filling up groups whilst at the same time expanding the tournaments - as an example there were 8 teams at Euro 92, but 24 at Euro 2016, so of course it’s far easier to qualify.

Plus Czechoslovakia splitting into two.

[Oldgregg86]

6 hours ago, matt83 said:

I went to the game on Monday night. I used to watch England regularly but I’d not been for a good while. I was astonished by how many women and children were there, certainly from my vantage point in the Stretford end upper I’d go as far as to say the majority. I took the 10 year old so people in glass houses and that.

On the one hand it’s nice people feel comfortable these days to make watching England a family day out but the trade off is women and children will never make for a good atmosphere. I partially stopped going regularly after they built the new Wembley as I felt they were selling out to tourists and day trippers. Looks like they ultimately did. A family in front of me who all watched the game through their phones, all had horns and not one had the foggiest about the rules of the game. 

I was in the stretford upper, with my 10 year old and a feckin air horn. Worst thing I’ve ever bought and I have a shirt with ward on the back somewhere. It was strange like you said . The first thing I noticed was how many mums and kids there were. The atmosphere was flat. I had four empty seats next to me until five minutes in four coked up , pissed  up dingles came and sat next to me grabbing the rovers badge on my shirt and bragging about the league title win at ewood. They were the exception though I was just unlucky enough to be sat with them. My lad enjoyed it because we won 7-0 but I was really shocked at how the fanbase has changed as a whole from the last time I went in probably 2004 against wales 

Edited June 22, 2023 by Oldgregg86

[speeeeeeedie]

7 hours ago, matt83 said:

I went to the game on Monday night. I used to watch England regularly but I’d not been for a good while. I was astonished by how many women and children were there, certainly from my vantage point in the Stretford end upper I’d go as far as to say the majority. I took the 10 year old so people in glass houses and that.

On the one hand it’s nice people feel comfortable these days to make watching England a family day out but the trade off is women and children will never make for a good atmosphere. I partially stopped going regularly after they built the new Wembley as I felt they were selling out to tourists and day trippers. Looks like they ultimately did. A family in front of me who all watched the game through their phones, all had horns and not one had the foggiest about the rules of the game. 

 

16 minutes ago, Oldgregg86 said:

I was in the stretford upper, with my 10 year old and a feckin air horn. Worst thing I’ve ever bought and I have a shirt with ward on the back somewhere. It was strange like you said . The first thing I noticed was how many mums and kids there were. The atmosphere was flat. I had four empty seats next to me until five minutes in four coked up , pissed  up dingles came and sat next to me grabbing the rovers badge on my shirt and bragging about the league title win at ewood. They were the exception though I was just unlucky enough to be sat with them. My lad enjoyed it because we won 7-0 but I was really shocked at how the fanbase has changed as a whole from the last time I went in probably 2004 against wales 

How you both described it was evident whilst watching the TV broadcast. It sounded like an athletics event (or dare I say women's game) rather than a football match. 

[matt83]

12 minutes ago, speeeeeeedie said:

 

How you both described it was evident whilst watching the TV broadcast. It sounded like an athletics event (or dare I say women's game) rather than a football match. 

It was almost like an atmosphere you find at a swimming baths. Sort of. Ambient noise with the odd random high pitch squeak and a whistle. One of the joys of going to a live game rather than watch it on tele is the atmosphere, sadly appears that’s gone if the atmosphere on Monday was better than the norm at Wembley.

I suspect those fanatical fans who go home and away just go through the motions at home to get the caps in order to go away.  

[Mattyblue]

A few lads I know from Rovers away games are at pretty much every England away match, I’ve never known them at a home England game.

[matt83]

They might have changed how they do it. When I was last going they had a cap system (1 for a home game and 2 for an away game). You’d need about 15 caps to get an away ticket, more or fewer depending on the allocation. Once got in to the fold got to the point where we bought a ticket to every game regardless, even if couldn’t go, and if we couldn’t tried selling them or often gave them away.

Good times though. Might just be a rovers esque can get tickets on general sale these days. 🤷‍♂️

[K-Hod]

I think they must have. I’ve been to one England game in my life (USA @ Wembley, 2018) and I always get emails with links to priority booking….

[matt83]

I vaguely recall each cycle was tournament to tournament on the fans club. So you’d look at an away game really wanted to go to down the fixtures and work out what the allocation was and where you’d need to be on the “rankings”. If you were say just in the top 2000 you could gamble if the allocation was likely to be 5,000 no dramas but if was likely 1,500 then you’d have to do a bit of spade work to get “promoted”.

The problem being if wanted to try and get into the elite group who were guaranteed tickets regardless of allocation if there was a couple of low allocation fixtures the ones at the top would just pull further way.

Had to post the stubs off for them to count and once I lost them at a game didn’t really want to go to (incidentally the game in Madrid where the Spanish were making monkey noises and booing our black players - not that we heard it). It was fun while it lasted and life got in the way. 

Edited June 22, 2023 by matt83

[MarkBRFC]

Lads I know just get the tickets and sell them on for home games, keeps there cap count up.

[Gav]

1 hour ago, matt83 said:

I vaguely recall each cycle was tournament to tournament on the fans club. So you’d look at an away game really wanted to go to down the fixtures and work out what the allocation was and where you’d need to be on the “rankings”. If you were say just in the top 2000 you could gamble if the allocation was likely to be 5,000 no dramas but if was likely 1,500 then you’d have to do a bit of spade work to get “promoted”.

The problem being if wanted to try and get into the elite group who were guaranteed tickets regardless of allocation if there was a couple of low allocation fixtures the ones at the top would just pull further way.

Had to post the stubs off for them to count and once I lost them at a game didn’t really want to go to (incidentally the game in Madrid where the Spanish were making monkey noises and booing our black players - not that we heard it). It was fun while it lasted and life got in the way. 

I used to love watching England away, more than Rovers most of the time, even with everything that came with it. 

I saw the England fans on YouTube in Malta thinking, nah, I'd not fit in with that lot, nor would they want me to either! 

As you say it was fun whilst it lasted matt83.

 

 

[AllRoverAsia]

Good win 2-0 for the u21s at the Euros.

Enjoyable watch, different Ref standards whereby you get booked for not retreating at freekicks, quote right too for what is standard acceptable unpunished  practice in England.

[ben_the_beast]

5 hours ago, matt83 said:

It was almost like an atmosphere you find at a swimming baths. Sort of. Ambient noise with the odd random high pitch squeak and a whistle. One of the joys of going to a live game rather than watch it on tele is the atmosphere, sadly appears that’s gone if the atmosphere on Monday was better than the norm at Wembley.

I suspect those fanatical fans who go home and away just go through the motions at home to get the caps in order to go away.  

I was at the Euro 2020 semi final vs Denmark. By far the best atmosphere I've ever experienced. Qualifiers are essentially glorified friendlies these days which is reflected in the atmosphere. 

Contracted Covid pretty badly from that England. But it was bloody worth it!

[goozburger]

6 hours ago, Mattyblue said:

A few lads I know from Rovers away games are at pretty much every England away match, I’ve never known them at a home England game.

Probably more expensive to go to. 😄 Getting to London. Staying overnight. General prices of stuff. I'm out of touch with what is going on in Old Blighty, but I bet nothing has changed in the sense that it costs a fortune just to get your basics in London.

[Mattyblue]

More than they wouldn’t be seen dead at a home game with a load of kids with facepainted faces blowing horns and the like.

It’s more about the sesh in some European city than a desperate need to watch them stroll to a win against Slovenia and the like.

[Upside Down]

On 22/06/2023 at 17:59, Mattyblue said:

They really weren’t up to about twenty years ago.

The disintegration of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia into twenty odd states, plus giving status to the likes of Gibraltar has brought in a plethora of mostly average to poor teams now filling up groups whilst at the same time expanding the tournaments - as an example there were 8 teams at Euro 92, but 24 at Euro 2016, so of course it’s far easier to qualify.

Definitely since the late 90s at least. As you say there was the fracture of the Soviet Union and NATO's annihilation of Yugoslavia.

In the early 2000s it seemed there was a new country every week. 

You also had Scotland just turn into an absolute dog shit side seemingly overnight. One defeat to the Faroe islands and that was it.

[CA1Rover]

Away matches are a bit crap now as well to be fair. Far too easy to qualify for the big comps now, only real buzz I get now is being at the big comps when we have to win.

I was at Old Trafford myself with my 10 year old Nephew and he loved it, first England match. He’s been a good range of matches around Europe as well now. Just concerns me that it will only be a big comp where he will really feel a tense match we have to win, we haven’t had a big away qualifier for over decade now - let alone a home one. 

[philipl]

When you look at other results, there are shocks all over international football. It is a case of Southgateball pretty well assures no embarrassing results but doesn't set England up to win tournaments..

[Mattyblue]

England have been strolling to tournaments from long before Southgate. They’ve won every qualifying group from Capello onwards (so 15 years), usually by at least six points.

Edited June 27, 2023 by Mattyblue

[AllRoverAsia]

The u21s play Germany today, 5pm UK ko time, in their final group match at the u21 euro championships. We are already qualified and probably already group winners.

U21s is having a laugh, u23s or even u24s more accurate so the England team is packed with experience.

Not sure if the competition is getting much coverage in the UK but further abroad there is TV interest.

I think it is available in the UK via the UEFA website or by VPN via someone like BEIN

Edited June 28, 2023 by AllRoverAsia

[roverandout]

6 hours ago, AllRoverAsia said:

The u21s play Germany today, 5pm UK ko time, in their final group match at the u21 euro championships. We are already qualified and probably already group winners.

U21s is having a laugh, u23s or even u24s more accurate so the England team is packed with experience.

Not sure if the competition is getting much coverage in the UK but further abroad there is TV interest.

I think it is available in the UK via the UEFA website or by VPN via someone like BEIN

Most sides in this competition have quite a few players who have senior caps.  England only have 1. Emile smith-rowe.  So it shows that the talent level is coming through 

[AllRoverAsia]

45 minutes ago, roverandout said:

Most sides in this competition have quite a few players who have senior caps.  England only have 1. Emile smith-rowe.  So it shows that the talent level is coming through 

We have a really good squad at u21 and in with a decent shout in these Euros.

Portugal next up.