Gareth Southgate Warns England Fans Over German War Chants Ahead of Wembley Friendly
Gareth Southgate has warned England fans not to sink to deplorable levels by taunting Germany supporters with World War II songs in Friday's friendly encounter.
The Three Lions host the old enemy at Wembley just eight months after they locked horns in Germany - a match that Joachim Low's side ran out 1-0 winners in.
During that contest a small number of England' travelling contingent decided to sing the much maligned '10 German bombers' chant at the Westfalenstadion - a chant that Southgate labelled "unacceptable" in quotes published by the Daily Mirror.
He said: “I was asked about this immediately after the game in Dortmund and, to be honest, I wasn't aware at the time what had been said, it was hearsay.
“So I wasn’t as strong as I’d liked to have been on it, really. It's unacceptable, completely unacceptable.
“We have a huge percentage of fans who follow us brilliantly. We experienced that in Lithuania, when we went over to the supporters at the end of the game.
Southgate specifically telling people not to sing something is almost certainly going to result in people singing that something.
— Steve Grant (@SteveGrant1983) November 9, 2017
“But an element, things that were shouted that night, were totally unacceptable. We've moved on from those times, or should have moved on from those times. They don’t represent us as a team, the people who do that.
“I want to be very specific, because I don’t want it to be ‘our fans’ as a collective, we're talking about individuals. The massive majority of supporters are brilliant.”
The Football Association chose to ban some fans for life for the chant, whilst others found themselves suspended for a time for also taking part in the vile incident.
Away from those ugly scenes, Southgate stated that Germany's decision to wear armbands with poppies adorning them - as a gesture of goodwill to stand with England ahead of Remembrance Sunday - showed that they were determined to move from that horrible period in their own history.
He added: “To add to that, Germany have taken a huge step in agreeing to wear the poppy in this fixture, so that should be noted and appreciated what they’re doing.”