FA frustrated by inability to crack down on England fans' poor overseas behaviour

England's historic 3-2 against Spain may well be remembered by the supporter behaviour that marred it off the pitch, but the FA is limited in what it can do

The Football Association is frustrated with their lack of powers to stop a new generation of England football fans from behaving badly on away games in Europe.

England’s 3-2 win in Seville was marred by violent scenes in the city on the Sunday night as well as sectarian chanting and an Islamophobic flag among the fans.

In the wake of the violence, the FA condemned “the unacceptable behaviour” of the England fans, and said they will seek to suspend or ban any England Supporters’ Travel Club members responsible for the disorder - just as they did with 12 ESTC members following disturbances in Amsterdam in March 2018.

But the FA know that, ultimately, the only sanction they have available is through the ESTC, and stopping offenders from getting tickets for England games. And while that has been successful in removing bad apples from the previous generation of fans, they are now confronted with the prospect of a new generation of England fans coming to games. If those fans are successful in getting tickets outside of the ESTC, as they were in Seville, there is little the FA can do to stop them.

That is why the FA have noticed such a difference between the good behaviour of England fans at far-away games, such as the World Cup, or in eastern Europe, and the worse behaviour in the more accessible destinations of western Europe. Here, shorter journeys and cheaper flights encourage a new generation of younger fans, outside the ESTC, who try to bypass it for tickets.

When England played a friendly against the Netherlands in March, plenty of non-regular England fans made the short trip to Amsterdam, and there was well-publicised trouble with locals and police ahead of the game. Dutch police arrested 115 England fans for bad behaviour on that trip, of whom only 13 were ESTC members. Nine of those 13 were on their first away trip, leading the FA to believe they had only joined for that specific game.

The FA has been able to work alongside the UK Football Police Unit to sanction those ESTC members who were responsible. One fan received a life ban for throwing bicycles into the canal, as caught on camera by UK police. Ten more were given three-year ESTC bans, and another remains suspended.

But the vast majority of those arrested were not ESTC members and did not have away end tickets. That means that while they may end up with football banning orders, there was nothing the FA could have done to stop them from being there in the first place.

Similarly, while the FA could monitor who was in the away end at the Estadio Benito Villamarin on Monday night through the ESTC, they had no say in who travelled to Seville, hoping to get a black market or home-end ticket. Of course anyone found to have been involved in violence in Seville will be sanctioned, but that will not solve the whole problem.

The FA has been very proactive in encouraging good behaviour from England fans. There was heavy messaging ahead of England’s game in Dublin in 2015 about respectful behaviour, although the FA accepts that messaging and campaigns will naturally be listened to by some fans more than others.

Before the World Cup, the FA ran supporters workshops, during which they discussed why some fans sing “No surrender” and other sectarian songs. But there is an acceptance that the supporters most likely to attend such an event are predisposed to behave better anyway. The reality is that the fans most likely to cause trouble on trips are the ones the FA has the least power to stop.