Downing Street hints at reception for England team

England's football stars may attend an official reception at Downing Street to welcome them home from the World Cup. A spokesman for No 10 suggested yesterday the event could be held in the near future to thank the team for its "excellent performance" in Japan.

The Football Association said yesterday it was considering a "major reception" for the squad as it defended itself over the manner of England's homecoming.

Thousands of fans were left angry and disappointed when the team arrived home on Saturday night because the players were spirited out of Heathrow airport and whisked away on coaches to disperse from a hotel in Middlesex.

There was no formal welcome and no opportunity for supporters to show their appreciation. Instead, an estimated 7,000 fans lined the route from the Heathrow engineering terminal at Hatton Cross after being tipped off by the media that the players would not be going through normal arrivals channels.

Radio phone-ins across the country heard yesterday from disappointed supporters who wanted to welcome the players and offer support to David Seaman, the goalkeeper whose lapse in concentration led to the Brazilian goal that knocked the team out of the competition.

After the players' arrival shortly before midnight, the fans who had found the team coaches chanted "Seaman, Seaman", an outpouring of understanding that put a smile on the 'keeper's face. He was travelling with his wife, Debbie and their two-year-old daughter, Georgina.

Challenged to account for the style of England's arrival, compared with the Republic of Ireland's ecstatic public welcome, David Davies, the FA's executive director, told BBC Radio Five Live's Sunday Service that the low-key approach had not been "a cock-up" but was taken for security reasons.

"Are you suggesting to me that we came into the country by such a 'back door' that every television station, cameras and thousands of fans knew about it?" asked Mr Davies. "We had taken security advice. The facts are that we were planning indeed a major reception for the team whether or not we won the semi-final or the final or whatever. Let me say this very clearly – we will look very seriously at a proper reception for the team if that is the right thing."

He dismissed reports they had snubbed fans as "complete nonsense" and added: "You can't ignore security advice. It was not a cock-up."

He said that security had been a major consideration of all the England team's plans in Japan and South Korea because the players had been swamped by fans wherever they travelled.

After England's arrival home from their last successful competition, at Italia 90, when they reached the semi-finals, hundreds of thousands of supporters welcomed the team home in an official reception. No one was available at the FA yesterday to explain why there was not one this time, or why the team's flight was timed for such an inhospitable hour.

In spite of the sad manner of England's exit from the competition, it would seem there is still appetite for a formal public welcome. John Perry, 26, who made it to Hatton Cross in west London on Saturday, said: "We were really disappointed that we weren't given the chance to say thank you. We were at arrivals and would have missed them completely if someone from the press hadn't tipped us off as to where they were. It's terrible that we should have had to find out like that.

"The players seemed really chuffed to see us. David Seaman was smiling from ear to ear after hearing everyone chant his name. I think he thought he was going to get a bad reception, like David Beckham after the last World Cup, but they all did us proud. They would get a fantastic reception if the FA gave them a proper welcome home."

Such sentiments were supported by other fans and public figures. Bill Morris, a keen football fan and general secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union, said: "It seems to me that we have put ourselves in a siege mentality; the result does not matter, it is how we apportion the blame that counts.

"I happen to feel we have not welcomed our team home properly. We are creating a defeatist mentality."

It was not clear, however, how realistic the staging of an official reception might be. After arriving at Heathrow, the players were taken to the Meridien Excelsior hotel in Hayes, Middlesex, where they said their goodbyes and travelled home with their families. They have only a few weeks' break before starting pre-season training, so arranging a gathering might be difficult.

The FA's commitment to a formal reception is also very much in doubt. When asked yesterday how seriously Mr Davies' suggestion was being considered, Paul Newman, the FA's head of communications, replied: "I have no idea", and hung up.