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German police are bracing for potential brawls between Serbian and English football thugs at the Euro 2024 tournament that begins this weekend.
The security status for Sunday’s match between England and Serbia in Gelsenkirchen has been upgraded to “high-risk,” according to a police spokesperson.
No regular beer will be served during the match, only light beer with 2.8 percent alcohol. Fans will also only be allowed to buy two beers at once inside the stadium — if they want more, they’ll have to go back and wait in line.
An estimated 40,000 English fans are expected on Sunday, plus 8,000 Serbs of whom 500 are hooligans, according to the German tabloid Bild . Serbian ultras have been known to celebrate war criminals, while English yobs have run riot in cities across Europe during years of bad behavior.
There will be “significantly more manpower than at an average Bundesliga match,” the police spokesperson explained. “The police will also receive support from Serbian and English colleagues, who know high-risk individuals and can identify them on site.”
Gelsenkirchen, which will host four Euro 2024 games, has a tournament-long plan to manage the huge numbers of football fans descending on the city.
It has created multiple so-called fan zones and meeting points, allowing the thousands of people to disperse throughout the city, in an attempt to stop violence from flaring up before matches.
Before the games begin, “fans of the English, Italian and Georgian national teams will celebrate in the south,” the police announced in a press release, while fans of the Serbian, Spanish and Portuguese national teams will congregate in the northern part of the city.
