Euro 2020: Une finale au bord du chaos

Firstly i'm not a football fan, i stopped supporting football about 35 years ago when it became more about the money and politics rather than the so called beautiful game.

However i do have an interest in Football hooliganism ( call it macabre ) but my view is if someone was a true fan of football why would they become a raving loon involving 22 grown men kicking a piece of leather up and down a grass filed in there underwear.

What got me was the way the producers made the ' hooligans ' out to be the good guys and the security and Wembley staff out to be the bad guys, and the guy with the neck tattoo who claimed he did it because he's been climbing the walls at home through the Covid lockdown was about as thick as the interviewer who asked him the question.

Personally the so called football fans who were interviewed and seen causing damage should have been bought up on charges and banned from games.

Overall well executed doc with some glaring omissions and missed opportunities. It seems to somehow idealize and normalize English hooligan culture. There's an odd hands off, no judgement here, attitude that pervades the 90 minutes of this documentary. The authors seem to have completely forgotten that in 1985 all English soccer clubs had been banned to play in European competitions for 5 years following the Heysel tragedy, where 37 Italians died following the actions of Liverpool hooligans during the Juventus Italy, Liverpool match. So again, Italy, England, hooligans. Fortunately this time, fate had that England lost the game otherwise there could have been another tragedy. All this escaped the authors and a pervasive moral relativism tells us that there's really no difference between the Italian dad going to the stadium with his daughter and regular tickets and the lovely fella jumping on the bus and getting into the stadium by braking down the barricades and evading the police. They are both fans that love soccer after all .

I was under no illusions that this was going to be a frustrating watch. What happened on that day was a feeling of disappointment for the end result, coupled with anger, embarrassment and shame with off field antics. This documentary brought those feeling back again.

It covers the entire build up of the day of the final. It looks to understand what and how it happened, and allows some of those involved to give their personal stories and ridiculous justifications for what was, and still is, unacceptable anti-social behaviour.

As an England football fan, the rollercoaster of anger and shame while watching it all continued to unfold. In listening to the modern day Neanderthals think their actions were perfectly okay and just driven by passion and a release of frustration post lockdown was just alien to me.

It's reasonably well produced, but difficult if you're English with any sense of morality. It will be a constant reminder why people will be very nervous that England co-host the euros in 2028 or at least why the security is bound to be significant.

The English Hooligans are well represented and how can they not be? This documentary clearly shows how the behavior is deeply entrenched in the young male England football fan. They have a well deserved bad reputation and this documentary only solidifies that fact. Every single citizen of the country or fan of the team should be thoroughly and completely embarrassed by what happened at Wembley on this day. It's so sickening that despite my previous support of the England club, I now hope they never, ever win any big tournament in the near future. The fans deserve many more decades of football misery for this.

As "The Final: Attack on Wembley" (2024 release from the UK; 82 min.) it is "11th July 2021", and England is set to play in and host the final of the 2020 Euros (delayed by a year due to COVID) against Italy. The movie starts at 8 am (12 hours before kickoff), and people from all over England are descending upon London, already heavily drinking, and many without tickets for the game. What could go wrong? At this point we are 10 minutes into the documentary.

Couple of comments: this movie brings a chilling account of the events on July 11, 2021, leading up to the game. A number of factors were heavily at play: first, this was England's fist chance since 1966 to win a major trophy; second, as in 1966, they would also be hosting the event; third, due to COVID delaying the tournament by a year, this was the first time people would be out and celebrating en masse; and last but not least: the English authorities vastly underestimated what was about to transpire. In short: all elements were in place for a massive for a colossal breakdown of security. The footage makes for absolute compelling if revolting viewing. I cannot readily recall having seen anything like this. The movie makers keep a tight pace throughout, and this documentary just flew by in no time.

"The Final" Attack On Wembley" started streaming on Netflix this weekend. Whether or not you are a soccer fan is frankly irrelevant. This is a documentary that shows what happens when an entire country is frenzied, with thousands of people determined to get into Wembley stadium, ticker or no ticket. SHOCKINGLY (not), pure mayhem and chaos ensues... Highly recommended.