Porto holds its breath as England fans descend with two things in mind - booze and football

An England fans' sticker in Oporto
An England fans' sticker in Porto, where thousands of supporters have descended for the Nations League finals Credit: Sam Wallace

In the Praca da Ribeira, in Porto, at the outdoor bar of the restaurant Botequim Nostalgic, it is all hands to the beer pumps, and Margarida Carvalho estimates that their output of €5 (£4.40) pints of Super Bock for the crowd in the square by the river is 10 times the usual level.

It is lunchtime and there are already around 1,000 football fans in the square with the city’s famous Luis I bridge in the background, some Swiss but mainly English – and the beer is flowing. A beach ball is being punched around, there are banners from, among others, Swindon, Port Vale, Plymouth and Gillingham. The atmosphere is boozy and boisterous but not threatening.

This is the beginning of the Uefa Nations League, potentially five days in which the Football Association estimates up to 18,000 English fans will visit Porto and Guimaraes – where England play Holland on Thursday night. The FA was sufficiently concerned to commission a pre-emptive strike – a YouTube video aimed at shaming its supporters into not disgracing themselves. The casting is dubious: the England fan in question looks more likely to own a folding bike than get drunk and chuck bikes into canals, but the message “Don’t be that idiot” is clear enough.

“It’s a good reminder, I suppose,” says Marc Beckett, 38, a Burnley fan sipping a pint with friends in the square. He is a member of the FA’s official supporters’ club and, like many of the fans in the square who spoke to Telegraph Sport on Wednesday, feels that it is a minority who give the others a bad name. There is also a general distrust of the media who are perceived as emphasising the worst elements. 

“I think the police have done a good job with the banning orders,” Beckett says, “there are not so many idiots.”

Reading fans
English fans started up German bombers song, but it did not spread

The football banning orders introduced after Euro 2000, of which there were 1,822 in force last August, have certainly done a lot to reduce outright violence. The FA’s focus this month, however, has been on anti-social behaviour. The governing body’s head of teams and corporate security, Tony Conniford, defined it thus: “People need to have a look at themselves and think, ‘If my relatives, wife or children were here with me, would it be an enjoyable experience [for them]?’ And the answer is no.”

Conniford identified a new breed of England supporter, young men who are different to their hooligan predecessors of previous decades but cause problems nonetheless, with a “stag-do culture where young guys get together and suddenly anything goes”.

For those in Praca da Ribeira on Wednesday, this is a bone of contention.

“If they are worried about a ‘stag-do culture’ maybe they should address ‘stag-do culture’ itself rather than people going to watch football on holiday”, says Tom, 26, from Solihull who declined to give his surname. “We are coming for a week away in the sun. You can’t put it on football fans as being the problem. It is not an issue with England fans, it’s a national issue.”

Swiss football fans
Swiss football fans gathered ahead of the match to drink beer and enjoy the match

A young group of Reading fans in their early 20s, some on their first England away trip, feel the same way. They are here to drink and watch football, a respite from watching their team struggle all season. They like meeting fans of other clubs. Jake, 20, who declined to give his surname, says that when England played Spain in Seville in October, the police moved in at the slightest provocation. On Tuesday night in Porto, there was a different approach, he says. The singing and the drinking was allowed to go on undisturbed.

It comes down to a question of what one considers anti-social. For many, the sheer number of fans congregated in one place, predominantly white men, drinking heavily with banners and songs, will meet that benchmark. Those English fans see it differently: as a legitimate holiday like any other, with football thrown in. They are expected to outnumber the combined total of Swiss and Dutch by three to one. To those encountering it for the first time, it is rowdy. A group of Romanian senior citizens on a guided tour of Porto look on in interest. Four English fans strike up the German bombers song but, in this instance, it does not spread.

Like many of his friends around his table in the square, Laurent Chatagny, 50, from Fribourg is wearing a red suit decorated with white Swiss crosses.

He is here to drink beer and watch football and as a Swiss accountant one can only assume he is risk-averse. He is surrounded by England fans. “I’ve never had a problem,” he says.

Across the square is the five-star £310-a-night Pestana hotel which has a security guard on the door politely stopping those who are not guests from using the lavatories. The manager, Bruno Ribeiro, says that he has just a couple of English fans staying, with their families. Unlike the bars opposite, his hotel is unlikely to benefit much unless you count the Swiss fans drinking on his terrace. He is polite about the English contingent. “We hope it will be peaceful.”

At Porto’s main police station, an old convent in a square further up the hill, they say around 9,000 officers of the national force, the Policia de Segurança Publica, will be deployed over the Nations League period. As of Wednesday lunchtime, no arrests had been made. The PSP’s policy, successful at Euro 2004, is largely non-confrontational. On Wednesday lunchtime, they were more preoccupied with the smooth arrival of the England squad at Porto airport.

The next few days will be telling, and one gets the feeling it could go either way. Pouring pints at the Botequim bar, Margarida, 28, says she would just make one point. “Ask your people to clean up their garbage,” she says. “We are very clean people and we don’t like the garbage.” Again there is that fine line: one person’s high-jinks is another’s anti-social behaviour. Has Margarida found the behaviour acceptable otherwise? “I am a woman from the north [of Portugal],” she says. “No one messes with us.”

License this content