England face a potential night of hell ahead of their World Cup round of 16 clash against Mexico on Sunday, with FA bosses fearing home fans will target the team hotel with fireworks to keep players awake. The Three Lions are forced to stay in a FIFA-designated hotel in Mexico City, and concerns have been raised after hundreds of fans set off fireworks outside the Ecuador team's hotel before their last game, prompting riot police and an official complaint to FIFA.
FA bosses on alert
FA bosses fear local fans will plan similar disruptions on Saturday night before the knockout match. Mexico City mayor Clara Brugada urged Mexican fans to behave “responsibly, carefully and with empathy.” Three people died in Mexico after fans celebrated in the streets following a previous match.
England fans are scrambling for tickets, with one on an official FIFA resale site available for £2,600. The Three Lions supporters will be vastly outnumbered at the iconic Azteca stadium, which holds 80,824 spectators. The England Supporters' Travel Club was given an allocation of 4,000 tickets.
Chilling safety warnings
England superfans Jo Lewis and Gary Taylor, who visited Mexico City earlier in the tournament, gave chilling safety warnings of “terrifying and chaotic scenes.” Jo, 44, from Harold Wood, Essex, said: “People with children, with babies were all getting crushed. It was terrible. No-one cared. People getting crushed everywhere. It took us four hours to get into the fanzone. I was swept in on a surge of grown adults into a small doorway area – my feet weren’t even on the floor – and I couldn’t even see Gary and I started to panic. This was the worst experience of my life. My hands were trembling for at least an hour afterwards.”
Gary, 64, an estate agent, added: “We went together to Mexico to see the Azteca stadium and to experience the Mexican fans. We arrived in the main square. There was so many people. It was chaotic. There must have been a two or three mile queue just to get to the fanzone. There was just one entrance which was, perhaps, the size of two double garage doors. It was frightening. Literally 10,000 people squeezing though that gap. It was madness, absolute madness.”
Travel chaos and high costs
Flights to Mexico City have exploded in price. One supporter flying from Atlanta is taking a 1,000-mile detour north to Canada before heading back down to Mexico to keep costs down, a ten-hour journey costing £380. Daniel Griffiths, 39, from Solihull, now living in Texas, said: “I’m prepared to pay big money for a ticket but I only want to be in the England section. This is not a game to sit among the Mexico fans. It could be very hostile.”
FA bosses are planning to have the squad arrive a day earlier than expected from their base in Kansas. Ecuador, Mexico’s last opponents, complained about their treatment before the round of 32 game, with thousands of fans congregating outside the team hotel setting off fireworks.
Iconic venue
The Azteca stadium is one of the most iconic venues in World Cup history, where Diego Maradona scored his infamous ‘hand of god’ goal in 1986 and which hosted the 1970 final when Pele and Brazil won the World Cup.
