A LIFELONG England fan who tries to attend every England game will unfortunately not be able to go to Rome to see England’s quarter final match against Ukraine, due to coronavirus travel restrictions.
Kevin Chalder, who works in Basingstoke at a storage company, has been to each of England’s four Euros games so far, which have seen them yet to concede a goal and now the bookies favourites to go all the way.
The English Football Association has refused to sell tickets to the England Supporters Travel Club, the body that sells away tickets to England fans, following the Italian government notice that all British citizens would have to self-isolate for five days upon arrival in the country.
“It wasn’t that surprising when we were told we could not go to Rome, but we had been hoping that they were going to allow a travel bubble to let England fans go," Kevin told the Gazette.
“A lot of us fans go to all the games home and away, it’s a shame something couldn’t be sorted out to go to this one.”
Regarding the Germany game, Kevin said it was amazing to be there and ‘bedlam’ when Raheem Sterling scored the opening goal.
Kevin has been going to England games with his son Josh since Josh was eight years old.
“Josh was jumped on by fans in the celebrations when we scored and hurt his back, but you don’t care or notice the pain in that moment," said Kevin.
But Kevin hasn’t let this dampen his hope of glory,. He is hosting his friends on Saturday for the match and said he will absolutely be attending the semi finals and final at Wembley if England are not knocked out.
“The team has improved a lot over the last decade, the players we’ve got are great, I can’t see us getting a better chance of winning.”
Should England beat Ukraine on Saturday, they would then face the winner of Czech Republic and Switzerland game at Wembley for the semi-finals with the victor playing the final at Wembley.
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