The New Wembley

The notes of #We're on our way to Wembley!# bobbled around in my head on Friday afternoon as I left work early to head home, grab a bite to eat and then head off to the newly rebuilt stadium.

Despite living in West London, and for many years only being one bus ride away from Wembley, I'd only been to football games at the stadium two or three times in the past, back in the days when it was easy to get hold of tickets to football games most anywhere. Since the days of mass sponsorship of the Premiership, football leagues and internationals, matches are definitely not so accessible any more.I had to buy an annual membership to the England Fans Club to get this ticket.

I can remember buying tickets on the day going to my first ever match at Loftus Road to see a goal-less draw between QPR and Liverpool. Nonetheless, I was excited by the chance to see all those players I had only ever seen on TV before.

I was no less excited as I sat on the train approaching Wembley and got a nice glimpse of the arch over the stadium glinting in the sunlight. Okay, since they've erected it, I've seen the arch loads of times. I got a great close-up on New Year's Eve at the Arena next door but this was something different. Now I was GOING to Wembley.

As much as I'd have preferred that they kept the twin towers this still felt special. I was excited!

The train journey had taken me a bit longer than expected, despite no delays or anything else of note so I was at Wembley Park station with about 40 mins. to spare before kick off.

But the crowds! There were thousands of people, heads bobbing up-and-down in front of me walking down Wembley Way (apparently now called Olympic Way but will always be Wembley Way to me.)

I walked off briskly, bought two programmes for a fiver each from the one vendor
that, for some reason, nobody was going near (everyone, like sheep, went for the first guy) and made good progress until I got to the ramp leading up to the stadium proper. Here, things went at a much slower pace. I made it to my entry gate only to see a sign saying that people in my block should use a gate further along. I wondered why but that was soon to become much clearer!

With just twenty or so minutes to go now until kick off, most of the people were now in their seats so by the time I made it through the narrow turnstile and the area behind the stands that encircled the stadium was relatively empty.

This area reminded me of Earl's Court. All concrete and functionality but no character. Concession stands as far as the eye could see selling the same drinks and food. But it was certainly spacious and that was nice. And I don't think that I've ever seen so many toilets in one place in all my life. (In fact I haven't as no single building in the world has as many.) There were male and female toilets every couple of metres!

I bought myself a small coke (£2.20) and headed for my seat. I knew that I was in the lower tier, behind the goal, but what I hadn't realised was:

(a) My seat was right at the top of the tier with a concrete wall behind and an overhand from the next tier above me!

(b) I couldn't see the arch from where I was sat which scuppered my changes of getting some nice pictures of the landmark.

(c) The Brazilian supporters section was located just to my right about three metres away with no segregation. This was why I had to enter by another gate.

Although it felt a bit weird, as it turned out having just a wall behind you meant that you could stand as much as you wanted without getting in any one's way, so that wasn't too bad. The only problem was that the marshals kept on insisting that everyone in the back row sit down for health and safety reasons. It was a losing argument for them though as all we had to do was point at the Brazilian supporters, most of whom were standing, singing and dancing their way through the match and say "We'll sit down after they do" to shut them up.

The leg room and width of the seats was also really good, the best of any football stadium that I've ever been to, though width wasn't such an issue as it eventually became apparent that the seat beside me was vacant along with the seat in front.

The Brazilians were a noisy bunch, bongo drumming throughout most of the match but that just added to the atmosphere and made it more of an experience for those of us who were close to them. This friendly atmosphere didn't decrease their competitiveness at all though. Some
of them snarled at us and some England fans snarled back. When we were 1-0 up they did quieten down a bit for a while but came back with a vengeance at the end when they got their last gasp equaliser.

England supporters are a funny bunch too. Some of them were a bit wasted and could have done with a bit of calming down. There was a boy who looked all of ten or eleven years old a few rows in front of me with a mouth that should be washed out with soap and water. Despite being a friendly, I felt some sections of the English crowd were a bit too angry for my liking. I can see why we get such a bad reputation. There's a thin line between passion and hostility which a few of them crossed from time-to-time.

It was an enjoyable game though and I savoured the experience despite the result. I walked out seconds after the equaliser but it still took me 25 minutes to get onto a train as the crowds were enormous and due to congestion at the station the crowd was held back for about 10 minutes.

Roll on the next game against Israel on 8th September. Hmmm, I hope that the security is tight for that one!