The England team have so far enjoyed home support in all of their European Championship matches but the fans are likely to miss out on the quarter-finals due to all the travelling restrictions.
So far the English side were based in London and had played their first four matches at the Wembley Stadium. But for the game vs Ukraine they will have to leave their comfort zone and head to Rome.
Saturday’s quarter-final will be played at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome and the 70,000 odd capacity stadium could only see a handful of British expatriates.
The quarter-final is supposed to have 16,000 allotted seats for the general fans at the Stadio Olimpico and the FA was supposed to get 16% of those tickets.
But as per the latest announcement, the FA will not be selling these tickets and these allocated seats have once again been placed on general sale(which will be handled by UEFA).
The letter to ESTC members from the FA read, as quoted: “Please be aware that, unfortunately, the FA will not be selling any tickets via the England Supporters Travel Club for this fixture given the travel restrictions in place across both countries, and as such are working with UEFA and the British embassy in Italy to facilitate as many ticket sales to English residents in Italy as possible.”
This decision has been taken due to the complication travelling and quarantine restrictions between Italy and the UK.
Firstly, a fan going to Italy from the UK must self-isolate for five days and then take a rapid antigenic or molecular swab test for Covid-19 to prove that he is negative.
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This would mean a person would have had to arrive in Rome on Monday to complete all the necessary proceedings before Saturday’s game.
Also, Italy is on the UK amber list meaning a fan returning home will have to isolate for at least five days.
All these complications mean a large number of fans will not be able to travel to Rome and support England but the FA are hoping that ex-pats in Italy will be able to cheer for the Three Lions in full voice.
Will the game be affected due to the absence of the England fans?
So far, the English side have been getting sort of an unfair advantage by playing in front of a heavy Wembley support. But with the supporters out of the equation, things could even out a bit for Ukraine.
We have seen that the absence of fans inside the stadiums have helped the away sides play a bolder game in the Premier League and there’s a big chance that Andriy Shevchenko’s side will be much calmer and composed now that a large contingent of English fans will not be howling and shouting at them.
We are not saying that Ukraine will suddenly become the better side on Saturday but there’s no denying that the Wembley crowd acted as the 12th man for the England team during the 2-0 win vs Germany and at least the Ukrainian players will not have to worry about that.
