Outside Elland Road on Thursday night there was little to suggest excitement levels for Russia 2018 are lower than before any major tournament over the past two decades. An hour after the final whistle England’s players began to leave the Bremner Suite with their families to spend their final days at home before flying to Russia for five weeks, if we allow ourselves to imagine a final in Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium on 15 July.
They emerged to screaming fans, from teenagers to pensioners, some clambering up stairs to get a better view. Harry Kane received the loudest cheers as he happily signed shirts and flags. Marcus Rashford did not stop for supporters but his strike from 30 yards against Costa Rica will be ingrained in their memories. This is not a golden generation of England players yet but there is a sense they offer something different and a willingness to interact with the public and media over the past fortnight means Gareth Southgate’s squad depart with no shortage of goodwill.
In selecting a youthful and inexperienced World Cup party, with an average age of 26 years and 18 days on the opening game against Tunisia on 18 June, Southgate has, intentionally or otherwise, wiped the slate clean. Few of them were involved in the scarring collapse against Iceland at Euro 2016 or the World Cup squads that limply surrendered to Germany in 2010 and failed to get out of the group in Brazil in 2014.
The toxicity has also been stripped away. The approach to this tournament has included Frank Lampard and Rio Ferdinand talk of a divisiveness in the England camp under past regimes, but there was an air of togetherness at St George’s Park in Staffordshire where they completed their preparations.
Fabian Delph talked animatedly about team-bonding exercises, revealing who is king of table tennis (Raheem Sterling) and pool (himself). It was a marked contrast to Joe Hart’s steadfast refusal to divulge any details about a darts competition before Euro 2016. A layer of suspicion and fear has been dissolved and that freedom is being reflected in the way they are playing. “I’m not getting carried away about how far this team can get but the performances in the warm-up game, particularly against Costa Rica were encouraging,” Kevin Miles, chief executive of the Football Supporters Federation, said. “From people I speak to, we like the lack of assumption in the team, the lack of ego and the lack of cliques.”
England will stay in the seaside town of Repino on the Gulf of Finland. Aside from the challenge of acclimatising to Volgograd, the venue for their first game that will be at least 10F warmer, they may have to contend with the tedium of a town without a wealth of attractions. But Gary Lineker, who will anchor the BBC’s coverage in Russia, does not buy into that. “Sometimes we get a little bit distracted by excuses,” he said. “I’ve heard before: ‘Oh they’re really bored before a World Cup’. Come on. Get real. You’re in a nice hotel, you’ve got box sets and PlayStations, computers in your pocket, telephones. When I played in Mexico in 1986 we were allowed one phone call home a week. You had to make your own entertainment. Yes, it’s boring at times but once you start winning it’s less boring. It’s funny that.”
Away from the England bubble, attention will fall on the altogether more serious problems facing this World Cup, some of which could not have been envisaged when Russia was picked as host on a dramatic evening eight years ago. It is among the most politically charged sporting events in history – and the landscape is ever changing. In January, a delegation from the FA, the national police chiefs’ council, the Home Office and the Football Supporters Federation went on a reconnaissance mission to the country, visiting the group stage venues with consular staff from the British embassy.
They were reassured that the Russian police were committed to ensuring fan safety. But by the time the FA returned in April to inspect the locations where England could play in the knockout stages, the consular staff had been deported. The expulsion of 23 diplomats was a result of rising tensions between Russia and Britain after the poisoning of Sergei Skripal in Salisbury. Last month, the head of MI5 said Russia was responsible for undermining European democracies. So it is understandable there should be nervousness around security for travelling fans and the team. That is not forgetting the vicious attacks by Russian hooligans on English fans in Marseille during Euro 2016.
There have been suggestions that this is partly the reason behind the relatively low number of English fans travelling. Fewer than 10,000 supporters are expected in Russia and the only match for which the FA have sold all of their allocation is the final group game against Belgium in Kaliningrad.
Miles thinks there are multiple factors at play. “Marseille has left its mark on some,” he said, “But we had scare stories before Ukraine about gangs of racist hooligans which never materialised. The key issue is it’s not known as a holiday destination. The riverfront in Volgograd isn’t Copacabana beach. There’s not an appetite for people to spend a family holiday there, then you’ve got the distances required to travel between venues and the cost of hotels because there aren’t very many.”
The last sporting event anywhere close to this size held in Russia was the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014, which have since been revealed to have been corrupted by state-sponsored doping. Fifa have promised the drugs tests taken in Russia will be immediately removed from the country and sent to a laboratory in Switzerland. With 2.5 million tickets on sale for 64 games in 12 stadiums and 11 cities the World Cup is a different beast.
Vladimir Putin’s hope when his country applied to be hosts was presumably to showcase Russia’s might to the west. Now the main aim surely is to repair an image damaged by wars in Syria and Ukraine and a hacking scandal. The understanding from the British security services is that he does not want the World Cup to be undermined by troublemakers.
“The Russians know they are being judged on hospitality and not how hard they are,” Miles said. “We have to take the police on their word and they have told us they are going to keep fans safe. Once the Fifa roadshow rolls into town you know what to expect. The stadiums, fan zones and the way the city centres get dressed are similar for every tournament. It’s only beyond that that you see the different characteristics of the nation.”
A Foreign Affairs Committee report published this week said non-match days and cities where England are not playing are major concerns, as is the welfare of BAME and LGBT fans. Gay supporters have been warned not to hold hands in public. Some of the England players, including Danny Rose, have expressed fears for their families if they were to travel. It has led some to question the wisdom of holding the tournament in Russia.
Lineker has cautioned against using a broad brush to dismiss the suitability of Russia as a host country. “There’s been stuff before every World Cup I’ve ever been to,” he told the Observer. “In Brazil, there were massive demonstrations about stadium spending and public life. You can start being judgmental on this country or that country but we need to get our own house in order and how corrupt certain aspects of our lives are.
“Come the start of the World Cup it’s always the same, once it starts it’s football and that’s all anyone cares about. I sense it will be all right.
“Hopefully, English fans will keep out of trouble. It’s easy to blame wherever we go but there has generally been one common denominator over many World Cups which has depressed me for 30 years. The massive majority of people just there to enjoy the football.”
It is to be hoped that this World Cup is remembered for the football, for an England side that was likable for once, and not events off the pitch.
