England play Serbia in Group C of the UEFA European Football Championship in Germany.
Police rushed to separate football fans ahead of England’s match with Serbia at the Euro 2024 football tournament in Germany.
On Sunday, footage on social media showed men throwing chairs at each other outside a restaurant decorated with Serbian flags in the western city of Gelsenkirchen. One group beat a hasty retreat as riot police arrived and wrestled at least one man to the ground.
A Serbian fan told The Associated Press that a group of people threw glasses and rocks into the area outside a downtown bar where he and others were sitting together drinking beer.
“There was a collision and we are fine. So that’s it, let’s go to the game, hopefully we’ll win. This is about football,” said the man, who identified himself only as Vladimir and said he was from the Serbian capital Belgrade.
Reporters who arrived shortly after the incident found the street littered with broken windows and tables as dozens of police officers stood by.
Sunday afternoon’s match between England and Serbia has been labeled “high risk” by police amid concerns of potential fan violence.
“So far what ‘high risk’ means in practice is that lower-alcohol drinks will be sold and no alcohol can be drunk inside the stands at the stadium,” Al Jazeera’s Dominic Kane said, reporting from Munich.
Only low-alcohol beer is served at the Gelsenkirchen stadium in an attempt to reduce the chance of trouble.
“A complicating factor is that UEFA, the parent body of these leagues, has said that the barriers inside the stadium must be removed … suggesting that English and Serbian fans could mix inside the stadium,” Kane noted. , adding that the German Police have made a great effort to prevent such hooligan clashes.
Around 20,000 England fans and 10,000 from Serbia are expected to flock to the city for the match.
The match will be played at the Arena AufSchalke and kicks off at 21:00 local time (19:00 GMT).