Play-offs remind us that English football is still played in a green and pleasant land

It has not been a good month for English football fans if you get your news from the more lurid of sources. There have been several pitch invasions and the headlines out of Paris brought back many memories of that EURO2020 final at Wembley.

The usual suspects in the blame game were quick to unleash their volleys long before the facts spilled out. Meanwhile three playoff games with massive consequences were being played at the same venue.

This has to be written:

The behaviour of all six fanbases was immaculate. I saw nobody drunk.

There were familes, children, the elderly and female supporters in great number.

The policing was superb with the officers far more willing to engage in friendly banter than was the case in the EUROs.

But this was not all about better policing.

[Police reduced to pick up litter and taking fan snaps as Sunderland and Wycombe do football proud]

Long before they reached Wembley, fans of the rival clubs were mingling happily around London.

In Central London on Friday night, the northern accents enveloped the city centre around Piccadilly and Chinatown. Neither theatre goers nor tourists cowered in shop doorways.

Bolstered by their fellow citizens in town to watch Huddersfield Giants tackle Wigan Warriors in the Rugby  League final at London Stadium, Terriers fans were out in great number.

They mingled sociably with Forest fans including a large number also making a long weekend out of it. They would spend Saturday afternoon cheering on Mansfield Town, their neighbours from Nottinghamshire, in the League Two playoff.

On Saturday, Huddersfield Town fans would have cheered on their side and drank at the Tottenham pubs with Wigan Warriors fans and behaved impeccably as rugby league fans always do.

Those Forest fans who attended the League 2 play off at Wembley would wave witnessed Port Vale and Mansfield Town supporters setting a perfect example.

Both those League Two clubs have relatively few Wembley appearances in their recent past and seemed to relish just being there at one of world sport’s most famous temples.

With those experiences fresh in the mind, it was pretty clear on arrival at Wembley that the Forest v Huddersfield match was going to match the previous day and last weekend’s Sunderland v Wycombe for fan behaviour. They were already happily sharing pubs elsewhere in London.

It was also highly notable that all three games welcomed a very high number of female supporters, which had been largely invisible in England’s home games in EURO2020. There may be a lesson to be learned there. Perhaps their presence is an antidote to toxic masculinity.

The atmosphere was initially a little tenser at the third game, the Championship play off.

Because a significant number of fans were already in London, Olympic Way was crowded a little earlier than you might expect. But there the similarities to the England v Italy game ended.

The police looked a little more edgy, presumably having been well briefed by the video of Forest fans’ pitch invasion after their semi final against Sheffield United.

Any fears the local police may have had however, began to dissipate as the atmosphere settled outside the stadium.

Cynics may want to dismiss the two latter finals as happy northerners on a big day out, or some such ridiculous stereotype. Forget that.

Sunderland and Wycombe could not be more different as clubs.

One is storied, the other has played more years out of the league than in it. One comes from the industrial North East, the ultimate hotbed of English football passion. The other from leafy Buckinghamshire.

Sunderland brought over 50,000 fans. Wycombe’s ticket staff worked overtime to sell 22,000 tickets.

Although a few had attempted to stir up pre-match enmity online, the reality in Wembley was one of mutual respect.

This had been bolstered by Wycombe Wanderers ownership’s generous decision to release spare tickets to the opposition. Many of the fans who had benefited from that gesture were in Wembley and made a point of passing their gratitude to Wycombe fans.

Perhaps good fan conduct trickles down from good club owners?

It needs to be added that Milton Keynes Dons’ decision-making in the semi-final may have influenced Wycmbe’s thinking. A paltry crowd of 13,000 watched that second leg in Milton Keynes as their ownership seemed to delight in making attendance as difficult as possible for everyone.

Milton Keynes lost money, received a shellacking in the media and were eliminated, anyway.

Wycombe opted for a more generous and gracious route. They still didn’t win the game but they won friends – and made money, perhaps rather a lot?

The attendances at the finals were superb this year:

Championship 80,019
League One 72,332
League Two 37,303

That’s a total of 189,654.

This total was the best for a decade. Obviously, the most recent years were affected by COVID and 2011 used Old Trafford for two of the games, thereby having a lower capacity than Wembley.

But for comparable years, this year was a triumph for the EFL. The total surpassed last year, the previous highest, by 2456 (perhaps making Wycombe’s gesture just a bit historic too).

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Total Attendances at EFL PLayoffs 2012-2022

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Obviously, the relative fanbases of the competing clubs dictate these numbers to a great extent. But it also makes matches passing off incident-free more of an achievement.

However, more important than size is the DNA of an actual fanbase.

The lack of a sense of entitlement plays a huge role. This is especially noteworthy for Sunderland this year, whose fans are often accused of believing they didn’t belong in League One.

There may be an online element trolling these views, but there was absolutely no evidence at Wembley of such arrogance. Every Mackem treated Wycombe fans with good humour and courtesy. At one point, I saw Sunderland fans pleading with bouncers to allow Wycombe fans into a bar which had been designated for Sunderland fans.

It should also be noted that Wycombe Wanderers attract a high proportion of female fans among their base. While I cannot say for sure this is a pattern, many Sunderland supporters also appeared to have made the trip as a family unit.

Against Italy, a very high proportion of groups were young males in clusters of fives and sixes. Maybe the FA might consider selling family tickets to England games. That would discriminate against single males but for a short time, it might reduce the toxicity of their matches. It seems that so many other measures have failed. Pointing the blame solely at men, however, is yet to be tried.

The England women’s team has a majority female fanbase and it is an absolute joy to follow them abroad.

There are other factors.

The jingoistic toxicity has lessened at club games. Clubs have a multitude of foreign players in their lineups and most fanbases are quite happy to venerate and make heroes of them.

However, influences such as Brexit and the increasingly racist tone of government messaging on issues such as immigration have contributed to renewed aggression in some parts of England.

Even England manager Gareth Southgate noted this when he commented on the racist undertones of Brexit, in Out of Their Skin, the documentary about the history of black footballers in the UK and the prejudices that they had to endure.

Does anyone think any black player on the staff of the three losing sides, Wycombe, Mansfield or Port Vale received the level of abuse received by England players after the Italy final?

As I wrote in an article about that day, Eye witness from Wembley: How the police, UEFA, idiots, media and politicians let England down, there is plenty of blame to go around including from us in the media. Although every match against Germany involves nauseous war references in fewer papers than 30 years ago, songs about German Bombers still appear.

Brexiter politicians and newspapers still use Nazi references in the face of any attempt by the EU to make the UK keep to its agreements. Although it does not come close to the economic harm caused by Brexit, it has had a toxic effect on the tone of debate since adopted by some irresponsible politicians.

In 1975, Basil Fawlty asked us NOT to mention the War. Being more anti-German than a sitcom character 40-years-old seems to be a badge of pride for too many on the political right.

Football and the FA cannot fix that.

Nor will the sports media run too many articles about how impeccably well behaved the six sets of supporters were – and more so what an absolute credit they were to English football.

That’s why we thought this article was necessary. For everyone who would love to follow England abroad and most of all – for these people below:

Match Reports:

Police reduced to picking up litter as Sunderland and Wycombe fans do football proud

Dominant Vale secure promotion against 10 man Mansfield

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All Mansfield