Playing behind closed doors is embarrassment for England as country, asserts Gareth Southgate

Following the conclusion of Euro 2020 last summer, England and the FA were hit by a two match ban after their fans reacted badly to the loss against Italy in the final. It saw more than a few destroy property and other things outside the ground while many were even reprimanded inside the stadium for bad behaviour. Not only that, English players received abuse on all forms of social media which saw UEFA hit the English FA with a two-match ban although one was suspended.

It means that England’s next home game, against Italy in the UEFA Nations League, will be behind closed doors although 3000 people will be in attendance. That crowd, however, will be largely made up of U14 schoolchildren according to UEFA rules and Gareth Southgate has hit out at the fans who led to this situation. The England boss admitted that playing behind closed doors is an embarrassment “for England as country”. However, he did praise those who attended the Nations League game against Germany and thanked them.

"If it is an embarrassment, it is for England as a country. A lot of the people that caused the problems I'm not certain were football fans,” Southgate said, reported Sky Sports.

“We spoke enough about it, we spoke about it after the final and when the punishment was first given, what I will say is the vast majority of our fans who travelled to Germany behaved brilliantly, a big thank you to them because maybe people were thinking something different but there were a huge majority who were a credit.”