It wouldn’t be an England match without a blaring rendition of The Great Escape theme tune every 10 minutes, would it?
Love them or hate them, the England Supporters Band have been a permanent fixture in the Three Lions’ travelling fanbase for quite a while.
But – make sure you’re sitting down – we’ve got some potentially terrible news.
If newspaper reports are to be believed, the band might be missing from the terraces at Euro 2016, after failing to request their attendance to the competition’s bosses.
https://twitter.com/ian_hamer/status/740828339485741056
To make matters worse for England fans that like their chanting to have a trumpet-heavy musical accompaniment, the Welsh band have reportedly been guaranteed access into the stadiums. You could argue that overall Hodgson’s players should have the upper hand on the pitch, but when it comes to bringing the noise, the Welsh fans are going to fancy their chances.
According to The Telegraph, Uefa have said that due to heightened security, they warned all national associations earlier in the year that they would need to request attendance to matches, but received no contact from the English contingent.
A spokesman for Uefa told the newspaper: “Since the stadium rules are very restrictive, Uefa has informed and asked all national associations already in March to request an approval by Uefa for coordinated fan activities in order to avoid any issues on match days.
“Many teams have put their request forward, which have been approved subsequently. No such official request has been received from the FA so far.”
It is thought that the band will still travel to France and are confident that they will be allowed to do their thing, but it’s probably fair to say that not everyone on social media was disappointed at the news.
England's #EURO2016 starts on a positive note: FA paperwork delays mean that dreadful band won't be allowed to take instruments into games.
— Nick Szczepanik (@NickSzczepanik) June 9, 2016
https://twitter.com/KeenosAFC/status/740845562862424064
Please let the England band rumours be true.
— David Cooper (@thatdlh) June 9, 2016
England band banned from the EUROs. This is better than us winning the whole thing!
— FUG (@RealFUG) June 9, 2016
The FA haven’t applied for the England band to bring their instruments into #Euro2016 stadiums. Most fans… pic.twitter.com/T6RxFPI9PJ
— B/R Football (@brfootball) June 9, 2016
That England band news has been greeted with as much delight as if England had got a bye straight into the final.
— Gandermonium (@Gandermonium) June 9, 2016
https://twitter.com/Deckymch/status/740835281692200960
