Thomas Tuchel braced for awkward arrival amid England fans’ anti-German chanting

Offensive chant heard at Wembley Park station after national anthems of Ireland and United Kingdom were booed before Nations League match

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Thomas Tuchel’s appointment as England manager has failed to stop fans singing Ten German Bombers after their country’s 5-0 thrashing of Republic of Ireland.
Audio recorded by Telegraph Sport can be heard below, with the song being performed loudly while supporters were being funnelled into Wembley Park underground station following Sunday night’s Nations League game.
The match was England’s last before Tuchel takes charge on Jan 1 after he was unveiled as the country’s first German manager last month.
Some England fans responded to Tuchel’s appointment by posting on social media that they hoped it would finally kill off the shameful soundtrack – which mocks German casualties during the Second World War to the tune of She’ll Be Coming ’Round the Mountain – and Sunday’s singing of it drew comments from other supporters present alluding to his imminent arrival.
Telegraph Sport has seen no evidence to suggest the song was performed inside Wembley or during England’s 3-0 win over Greece in Athens on Thursday night, amid the potential threat of fans being punished for singing it in the stands.
That has not prevented it being sung outside grounds, with multiple attempts at stamping it out of English fan culture down the years having failed.
Ahead of last summer’s European Championship in Germany, police in Gelsenkirchen told any supporter thinking of singing the song at the tournament: “Don’t be a d—.”
But that was immediately ignored ahead of England’s opening match against Serbia in the city and it continued to be sung during the country’s run to the final.
At the previous Euros in 2021, the Fare Network, which operates Uefa’s anti-discrimination monitoring system, submitted an official report to European football’s governing body about the song being performed during England’s opening fixture against Croatia.
Piara Powar, the executive director of Fare, told Telegraph Sport at the time: “We would classify it as an ultra-nationalist song that, sung within certain contexts, would be seen as an insult and discriminatory.”
But the incident was not deemed to meet the threshold for sanctions to be imposed upon the Football Association, which would also have been hampered attempting to identify anyone singing it by coronavirus restrictions that included the wearing of masks at matches.
Four years earlier, the song was loudly sung in England’s friendly against Germany in Dortmund and accompanied by gestures mimicking aircraft in flight.
Less than two months after that, the FA banned a number of members of the England Supporters Travel Club for “unacceptable behaviour” during the match.
Ten German Bombers is not the only Second World War-related song in the playlist of England fans.
The soundtrack to the iconic movie, The Great Escape, is performed at matches by the England Band, as well as being sung inside and outside grounds.
There is no suggestion this song causes any offence and band leaders have told Telegraph Sport they will continue to play it after Tuchel takes charge of the team.
Sunday night’s game was also marred by the jeering of England and Ireland’s national anthems before kick-off at Wembley.
The football associations of both nations were punished for similar catcalls when the countries met in Dublin in September, with the visiting FA fined £10,500 for the incident.
The hosts were fined £8,400 for their fans jeering God Save the King at the Aviva Stadium.
Uefa is now almost certain to issue more sanctions after the anthems were loudly booed in the moments before the Wembley clash.
Chants taunting England supporters about the death of Queen Elizabeth II could also be heard coming from the away end after kick-off, with supporters singing “Lizzie’s in a box” to the tune of Give it Up by KC and The Sunshine Band.
“Wembley Stadium has a zero-tolerance policy on any form of anti-social, offensive and discriminatory conduct, and anyone found guilty of this behaviour will be prevented from entry or ejected from the stadium and reported to the authorities,” read the supporters’ guide from Wembley ahead of the game.
“Any offensive chanting, gesturing and displaying of abusive messages is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. People who are found to have committed offences face stadium bans and potential criminal prosecution.”
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