Wembley’s way forward

PERHAPS it is pointless comparing the policing of an event with no fans to the demands of organising security for the final of the European Championship at Wembley, but it still felt instructive to attend the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games in Tokyo on Friday night and be reminded how the chaos that enveloped the England-Italy match this month might have been avoided.

In Tokyo, much of the area around the Olympic Stadium had been turned into a sterile zone, made inaccessible to traffic by roadblock after roadblock. If there had been fans, those without tickets would not have got close to the stadium.

At Wembley, it’s different. It has got to the point where we seek to celebrate the drunken mayhem that happens near the stadium before matches. Camera crews assemble at the Boxpark on Wembley Way to record revellers hurling their beer into the air when England score. The area around the stadium is full of retail outlets. Until we gain the will to restrict that area to ticket-holders, we risk more of the kind of chaos Tokyo would not countenance.