Update: False alarm everybody. UEFA has granted The FA's request to allow their supporters band to play. Still though, pretty funny nonetheless.
For the first time in twenty years, English games at a major football competition might be played without the familiar tones of ‘The Great Escape’ after a UEFA crackdown on bringing musical instruments into games.
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The England Supporters Travel Club Band have accompanied the national team at every international tournament since Euro ’96 and has been the soundtrack to - let’s face it - England repeatedly crumbling under the scrutiny of massive public expectation.
All national team bands must apply directly to UEFA to seek permission to be allowed into stadiums during Euro 2016 due to increased security in the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks last year and UEFA claim that they didn’t receive any application from the FA.
This claim has been disputed by The FA. Speaking to the Daily Mail, an FA spokesperson said:
As standard protocol, The FA always request for the England Supporters Travel Club band to be granted permission to enter host stadiums with their instruments. During venue visits for UEFA Euro 2016, The FA were advised that musical instruments would not be permitted into stadiums.
The FA had not been advised of any change to this regulation but we understand that UEFA are now looking into our original request.
If the English band are denied entry to the tournament it will make their Group B encounter against Wales particularly interesting, given that the Welsh band – the brilliantly titled Barry Horns – apparently filled in their paperwork correctly.
Now if only we could somehow go back in time and somehow impose this policy on those bloody awful vuvuzelas from the 2010 World Cup in South Africa…
