Feature

FA investigating why thousands missed kick off for England’s World Cup qualifier

Upwards of 5,000 football fans were left frustrated after missing the start of England’s Fifa World Cup qualifying game against Slovakia at Wembley Stadium yesterday (Monday) evening.

The Football Association (FA) is investigating why thousands of people were left stranded outside the English national team stadium well after the 7:45pm kickoff.

The Mirror newspaper reports that the chaos is believed to have ensued when several fans’ printed out tickets would not scan at the point of entry.

In addition, security measures that seem to have been inconsistent at different tiers in the stadium could have caused the ruckus, with the upper tiers being fully body searched, while the bottom tier was mostly not.

The 90,000-capacity stadium hosted the 2018 World Cup qualifier game, in which Slovakia scored in the third minute, meaning many fans would have missed the goal due to the commotion. England ended up winning the game 2-1 with goals from Eric Dier and Marcus Rashford.

The FA is expected to make a statement on the events this (Tuesday) evening.

In addition, fans later criticised the low attendance figures at Wembley with more than 22,000 empty seats. The World Cup qualifier had an official attendance of 67,823, just 75 per cent of the stadium’s 90,000 capacity.