Fans tell of travel chaos in Gelsenkirchen after England’s 1-0 win over Serbia

BERLIN – Fans complained of lengthy travel disruptions and crowded trains following England and Serbia’s Euro 2024 game in Gelsenkirchen on June 16, which drew tens of thousands to the western German city with a population of 200,000.

Crowds waited for available carriages to carry them from the crowded station near the Arena AufSchalke until well into the night, according to the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper on June 17.

Video shared on social media showed trains and station platforms packed with fans who jostled to find space.

“Game finished just before 11pm. Three hours to travel by tram and train to Dusseldorf, which is less than 50 miles (80km). Astonishingly bad,” one fan wrote on social media platform X.

Local police said the fans’ departure had been “largely orderly”, but acknowledged bottlenecks at some stations due to the large number of visitors.

“This is normal,” a spokesman for the city authority told Reuters. “If 60,000 people all come at once, they can’t expect to leave within 10 minutes.”

Gelsenkirchen is flanked by the larger urban centres of Cologne, Dortmund and Dusseldorf. Many international fans stayed in those cities, putting pressure on the national rail operator Deutsche Bahn (DB) to get them there and back.

DB said it and various local operators had worked to increase train capacity, including a special line running between Gelsenkirchen and nearby cities.

“Football fans know that as soon as the referee blows his whistle, everyone goes home. It can get crowded on the platform,” a spokesman said.

Tournament host Germany expects 2.7 million people to attend matches in stadiums across the country and some 12 million in fan zones for outdoor viewing.

Also on June 16, seven Serbia fans were taken into custody after scuffles broke out in Gelsenkirchen ahead of their team’s

1-0 defeat by England,

police said.

A complaint for dangerous bodily harm was filed against one of the fans, a police spokesman told AFP.

Details of what happened and of any injuries were still unclear, the spokesman said.

Police earlier reported having to separate England and Serbia fans after clashes between the two sets of supporters.

However, the spokesman said no England fan had been taken into custody.

The German Bild daily published images showing an altercation on the terrace of a restaurant, with chairs being thrown around.

Several people were injured and a group of England supporters were arrested in a nearby pub, the report said, without giving numbers.

England fans infamously clashed with supporters from Russia ahead of their match in Marseille, France, at Euro 2016, which saw running battles between hooligans.

Meanwhile, Switzerland’s squad have had to move their training sessions ahead of the June 19 Group A clash with Scotland because of the poor quality of the turf at their camp.

Murat Yakin’s team had been based at the home of lower-tier German club Stuttgarter Kickers but the newly laid turf began to die out, raising fears of players getting injured.

Switzerland have now switched to the training base of Bundesliga outfit VfB Stuttgart while the problems are rectified. REUTERS, AFP