England Supporters Club

Will you be covering the costs for people who paid their hard earned money to travel for this? Will you balls. On the plus side for anyone who has booked however, Croatia is a great country to visit for a few days

David Lilley - I understand the away double header was due to FA being unwilling to hold home games when NFL was going to be at Wembley.

Fans are lambasting the Spanish for not confirming the venue of their game against England yet our own FA have still not named the venue of the Switzerland home game in September which id like to know sooner rather later to plan my own home double header.

Alastair McCulloch  -  Maybe, but Switzerland, N.Ireland, Czech Republic and Germany also have away double headers in October. My point stands that UEFA should not arrange things this way.

David, I don't know if you remember back in the 90's and early 2000's when double headers away were common. I personally loved them as it meant to had a few days travelling between countries in between games. Austria and Poland back in 2004 (I think) was certainly a good trip.

I remember doing Poland and then Norway away in a double header back in the early 90,s on a coach!

Quite an embarrassing set of circumstances. Firstly UEFA for not making this clear at the draw stage. Secondly Croatian FA for not mentioning this as soon  as the draw was made, and finally from our FA stating that it’s now not safe to travel to Croatia. The childish bickering on here over the past few weeks has no doubt forced the FA into making a decision that punishes all and rewards nobody. I will still be travelling (like many others), although thanks to the FA’s latest revelations I am now fearing for my life. This trip will sort the men out from the boys after our teddy bears picnic in Russia.

My interpretation of the statement is that they are advising not to travel to the fixture, ie go to the ground or surrounding bars, rather than going to Croatia.

I reckon the major safety concerns were more regarding reaction of home fans on finding out England fans  had got to watch the game..

I paid nearly £300 for flight to Croatia why wasn't we told of this ? As I'm aware the ban was stated in 2015. Why can't the fa refund us ?

This is indeed a Raas Bumba Claat!

Bloody disgrace and patronising.  "Disappointed "? No wonder the membership is dwindling.  You'll be losing myself and my wife after Russia as well.

For too long now we the fans have been poorly treated by all levels of football management.  Russia & Qatar were the ultimate betrayal, the next euros are a debacle and now this.  

Let's face it, with corporate and tv money we are and have been surplus to requirements for a while.  It's not illegal to travel and you do not own us even though you behave as if you do.

Croatia is booked and paid for so unless you're reimbursing the total cost......see you there

Why are England fans punished, I think the Croatia fans should be banned from Wembley and England fans given extra tickets for the away game. But as usual the Gutless FA have done there country proud :(

Seriously not sure what the FA have to answer for here. They have actually done more than they could have, by getting all the relevant information together and looking into the feasibility of England supporters going to the game.

The statement on safety does at face value seem a bit laughable, but as JdW pointed out earlier on this thread it is more referencing Zagreb’s notorious ‘bad blue boys’ firm and the fact that England’s first trip there in 2006 saw quite a bit of trouble (albeit the trip in 2008 was largely without incident); maybe the police and Croatian police discussed this game and, as officially no supporters are to be present, neither will be present en masse like they would be for most high profile matches, meaning any England fans considered ‘targets’ by over zealous Croatian hooligans will be completely unprotected. Plus there’s the fact that they HAVE to tell the supporters not to travel, or else UEFA could easily sanction them (as they frivolously have in the past for such ‘misdemeanours’ as wearing a poppy on the shirt...)

Personally I believe that ‘empty stadium’ sanctions should only apply to home fans generally; however whilst this is not the case, with the FA genuinely looking into getting SOME tickets for our support, I can’t believe they are getting castigated. Who knows, maybe they expected 50-100 to have booked, a number easily accommodated, but well over double came forward? We don’t know the numbers. Certainly seems like a fair few are affected, just from the microcosm of the forum.

And those who think we should withdraw from the tournament because of this (and the fact that the Spanish FA haven’t announced the venue for our game yet, even though tournament regulations mean they don’t have to for another month) are clearly deluded.

Those that have booked, go anyway, enjoy a lovely city and a bit of mid Autumn sunshine.

OH come on why is anyone surprised with the outcome? I have had my run ins with the FA, but seriously there was never going to be a happy ending to this farce. Now if we had been Irish......well thats another story!

Can the fa or somebody confirm the stadium please