Southgate ‘surprised’ by fan numbers for closed-doors game in Hungary

England’s manager Gareth Southgate reacts as he leads a training session of the England’s football team at the St George’s Park stadium in Burton-upon-Trent on May 30, 2022 as part of the team’s preparation for the upcoming UEFA Nations League. (Photo by Paul ELLIS / AFP) /

England coach Gareth Southgate said he was “surprised” that 35,000 fans will be in attendance for Saturday’s Nations League game against Hungary due to take place behind closed doors in Budapest.

Hungary were ordered by both UEFA and FIFA to play matches without crowds after racist behaviour by their fans last year.

But the Hungarian FA is using a loophole in UEFA’s regulations that allow children to attend. According to the rules every 10 children must be accompanied by one adult.

The English FA is implementing a similar programme for the behind-closed-doors game against Italy at Molineux next week, but has limited the numbers to around 3,000 children from local, England Football-accredited under-14 teams.

“I think we are all surprised,” Southgate said of the expected numbers of Hungary fans.

“But we are inviting children into our stadium so I wasn’t really clear on the rules of any of it at the start of all of this. I don’t know what the figure should be or shouldn’t be.

“Other people have got to deal with that. We’ve got to make sure that we are consistent in our beliefs, the stand we take as a team, the fact that we are united on it being unacceptable and it is for other people to administer sanctions.

“Once we are administering sanctions, it has gone too far anyway. The key is education. The young people in the stadium hopefully pick that message up tomorrow.”

Hungary were also sanctioned by FIFA after their fans racially abused England players during a