‘I walked through England fans in a Scotland shirt – what happened suprised me’

When out covering the Euros in Germany, in what some might call a moment of madness, I decided to see how Scotland fans would react if I walked through a sea of them wearing an England shirt.

The inevitable barrage of abuse was mostly good natured banter and I never felt that my physical safety was ever at real risk. 

But when the story of my stunt was published I was consistently given the same challenge by readers – try it the other way around.

“You couldn’t do it,” said one of the many comments highlighting the fact supporters of the Three Lions have a bad reputation for causing trouble. 

Following British fans at the Euro 2024 tournament I’d seen the reasons for that argument myself.

From the straight-up hooliganism in Gelsenkirchen before the opening game against Serbia to run-of-the-mill obnoxious behaviour in Frankfurt when England met Denmark it was often embarrassing how some of the English fans behaved.

At the same time, there were plenty of examples where England fans were excellent travellers and German or Scottish fans passed through them without incident.

However, when I did accept the challenge and pulled on the navy shirt of Scotland, once back home in England, and headed into a crowd of Englishmen there were clear differences in how they responded.

The first contrast between the English supporters and Scotland fans was obvious before I’d even pulled on the jersey: those south of the border lacked the enthusiasm of their Scottish counterparts.

This is not to say that there weren’t passionate England followers, but, perhaps spoiled by consistently qualifying for tournaments and reaching the latter stages, there was not the feverish generational atmosphere you get with the Tartan Army.

I encountered this even while planning where to do the walk-through. Having returned to London from the tournament and, with the England team limping their way through the competition, the venues showing the Switzerland game were actually pretty limited.

So I decided to go to two different locations in my Scotland jersey.

First, I headed to the Kirby Estate in South London situated deep in the heart of Millwall-fan territory where the flats are known for being the “most patriotic in the land”.

But when I arrived it was painfully quiet. Other than a group of lads vaping in a stairwell there was little suggestion beyond the gentle flutter of St George’s flags that there was a European Championship quarter-final just minutes away.

When spotted by a couple of locals there was a weak “come on England” shouted in my direction but that was about it.

Fortunately, I had a second destination on my list and hopped on a tube train to Wembley Boxpark.

Known for having the wildest celebrations in the country, it was immediately clear that there was a more raucous set of fans in attendance.

I was spotted by the balcony and smoking area where there was immediate booing and singing of “Scotland get battered everywhere they go”.

But, just as I’d found walking through the Scots, it was all good-natured and friendly.

A few individuals told me to “f**k off” and shouted “who the f**king hell are you” but again it was not aggressive. 

However, by the same point in my Scotland fans walkthrough I’d already been hugged by a supporter who’d cracked a similar line.

It was a trend that continued. An England fan holding a beer walking past shouted a rendition of “f**k off Tartan Army had your f**king party”. By contrast, Scots were quipping “we hate England more than you” and telling me “you’ve got the wrong top pal” with smiles and laughter.

It felt that England fans were just more reserved because while lots of fans gave me side-eyed confused looks and whispered to their friends, Scots were quick to smile, engage and make a joke.

As I walked through the Scotland fans, they sang songs like “Oh Diego Maradona” but there were lots of good-natured handshakes and interactions.

The English crowd wanted to sing about Scotland manager Steve Clarke being a “fat Scottish b*****d” or “Scotland going home” rather than share a joke.

On the other hand, other than a few “f**k offs” there were few England fans who seemed genuinely annoyed. When I’d walked through the Scots a handful looked angry and wanted to call me an “English c**t”.

The c-word was another clear point of difference. Considered one of the rudest words south of the border, it doesn’t appear to carry the same shock value amongst the Scottish which maybe made some of the insults sound worse than they were intended.

So while the sight of a Scotland shirt didn’t provoke the England fans into terrible behaviour I think it’s safe to say their banter was not on the same level as their rivals.