Gareth Southgate: England will be forced to play behind closed doors against Italy on June 12 at the Molineux Stadium. This situation is a result of the FA being sanctioned following unruly crowd behaviour at the Euro 2020 final.
Gareth Southgate addressed this situation in a recent press conference. “We are where we are. We’ve got the embarrassment now of playing behind closed doors at home,” Gareth Southgate said.
“Normally when you watch those things having happened abroad we’re all grandstanding about how it’s someone else’s problem and how this country should be dealt with – and now it’s us. That’s not a good optic for our country.
“There’s clearly a responsibility within football because, when it’s in our environment, we’ve got to do all we can to try to make sure it doesn’t happen.
“We all recognise that, but it’s a wider problem. It’s behaviour and a reflection on where we are as a country.
“It’s a difficult time for people, we’re going to have more difficult times because of the economy and the realities of the situation we’re in.
“How do we want to be viewed as a country. Because that’s manifesting itself in football at the moment and that’s not a good look. We don’t want to go back to fences up and the type of environment that [was] created.
“We still want to host, we still have fantastic facilities, brilliant stadiums. What we don’t want is this element of it that will distract from the good things that are there.
“So we’re talking about something that could cost us the chance of doing those sorts of things because people will look from the outside.”
