‘They’re thugs not fans’: Met Police Federation condemns England supporters after officers attacked
England supporters who attacked officers after last night’s Euro 2020 final defeat are “thugs not fans”, the Metropolitan Police Federation has said.
The body, which represents thousands of London’s police officers, tweeted: “These people should be ashamed of themselves.
“They are not fans. They are thugs. We wish our injured colleagues well.”
The Met Police said 19 officers were injured when they “confronted volatile crowds” in the capital after the game and 49 people had been arrested for a “variety of offences”.
Police said some people in the capital had been “jumping off street lamps or hoardings”, something officers warned “could easily end in injury”.
Earlier on Sunday, fans were pictured in London’s Leicester Square throwing bottles and road cones, leaving the area littered with rubbish.
Broken glass and beer bottles were also strewn across the ground outside Wembley.
Clean-up operations were well under way in the capital by 7.30am following the huge mess left by football fans, with only a handful of diehard England supporters remaining around Leicester Square.
Teams of street cleaners worked overnight to clear away the trail of beer bottles and cans left in their wake as crowds of dejected fans slowly trickled out of central London.
Before kick-off, more than 100 ticketless fans broke through security barriers at Wembley to get into the stadium while there were reports of match stewards being abused.
Footage showed people jumping over walls and running towards the stadium to gain access, with police on a manhunt to track down those who got in without tickets.
Some people with booked seats could not sit in them as ticketless fans were in their place, as others stood in gangways to get a glimpse of the game.
Sonny Stockford and his son Samuel, speaking to Sky News, said they had tickets but their view was obstructed by ticketless fans who were lined up in multiple rows in front of them.
“You’ve got a mass of people that have rushed in and they have got no seats, and they are stood in front of you, lined up”, Mr Stockford said.
“The security would do nothing about it. I went to security and spoke to seven different people, I asked people with radios to contact people.
“They all came back and said the same thing: ‘We don’t have enough staff, we can’t do anything about it.’
“I said to them this was one of the biggest security risks you could ever wish to see, and what are you going to do? You can’t leave hundreds of people in aisles and in seats that cannot get in or out, this is not acceptable.”