(... but FA book jet home after Ukraine game)
Last Updated: 10th June 2012
ROY Hodgson yesterday insisted England can defy searing heat to sizzle in Euro 2012 — but the FA has booked a flight home for the team after the final group game.
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The manager rallied Three Lions stars as England prepared to tackle France tomorrow amid a 90° F heatwave currently scorching Ukraine.
But The Sun can reveal Football Association chiefs have already chartered a jet to bring the players back the day after their group game against Ukraine on June 19.
They insist it is NOT because they expect the team to be dumped out of the tournament early.
And they claim it is just standard contingency procedure.
But ex-England star Alan Mullery called the booking “a bit strange”. He said: “As a player I wouldn’t like it.”
The Titan Airways flight is due to leave Krakow, England’s base in Poland, on June 20.
It is scheduled to land in Manchester at 4pm before heading on to London’s Stansted airport. The FA refused to comment last night.
Don't con the nation
By RICHARD MORIARTY, NICK PARKER and ROB BEASLEY
ENGLAND boss Roy Hodgson told yesterday how he feared being “conned” by his players — and urged them to perform at their best for the nation.
He admitted Euro 2012 “could be the most terrific three weeks of my career or the most torrid three weeks of my life”.
And he said his biggest worry was “getting a totally different reaction in the games from what I am expecting to see from these players”.
He explained: “If they’ve conned me into thinking I’m working with a good bunch here — that this is a bunch who won’t let me or the team or the nation down — then suddenly in three games they really do. That for me would be the real painful blow.” But Hodgson, talking at England’s base in the Polish city of Krakow, insisted the team is capable of taking the footie tournament by storm.
Without making predictions, he said: “I’d like to think we could do well.”
England open their campaign tomorrow against France in sizzling Donetsk, Ukraine.
The temperature there is expected to hit 32°C — or 90°F — making it the hottest match ever for several England players.
There are concerns they may struggle to adapt to the heat as Krakow has been 13°C cooler and they will be in Donetsk only 24 hours before the match. But it is their performance on the pitch that is occupying the mind of Hodgson, 64.
He said: “This is the top job in English football but I’m not naive enough to think it will all be plain sailing and everyone will be saying. ‘What a clever guy you are.’
“I’m not that stupid to hope for that. But if it’s torrid I hope it’s torrid for the right reasons.
“By that I mean because the players have let myself and the team down very badly — that we have played very badly and that fair-minded people watching us are thinking, ‘My God, what are they doing?’
“That would be much more painful than if I have to read that I got the team wrong or I should have picked this player or done that or the penalty spot wasn’t bright enough.”
Hodgson remained reluctant to predict how far England will go.
He said: “I haven’t set targets like that. So many targets are set for you, why bother to set them yourself? You’re quoted to be shot down — ‘Hodgson says this, we can do that.’
“I just want to get the team in its best possible shape. I’d like to think that if some of these players show the qualities they do in the Premier League and we can pull together and work hard together, we could do well.”
Hodgson made a bizarre comment about England’s opening game, according to a report published in a Swedish newspaper yesterday.
In an interview former English footballer Stewart Baxter, now a commentator for Swedish TV, was asked if Hodgson had said anything to him about the match against France. Baxter said: “Yes he did. He said, ‘How the hell shall we beat them?’ If Rooney had been playing I think Roy would have been more confident.”
The team received a boost yesterday when brave Spurs striker Jermain Defoe returned to Krakow just three days after the death of his dad and headed straight to a training session.
England fans gave mixed reactions after learning the FA had booked a team flight home after the final group game.
James Mulligan, 23, of Bournemouth, Dorset, said: “Why haven’t they booked one for after the final? The FA should be thinking positively rather than preparing for the worst.”
But Rob Shaw, 33, said: “Maybe it’s just good planning. Let’s hope the boys perform and they have to cancel it.”
Fury as fans are banned from jet
EXCLUSIVE By JAMES BEAL
ENGLAND fans heading to the Euros were turned away from the plane they were booked on yesterday — after being told it was full.
Around 15 devastated supporters were refused seats in chaotic scenes at Gatwick Airport.
All had bought return tickets to Kiev, the capital of Ukraine.
But at check-in, Ukraine International Airlines said their details did not exist.
Several forked out an extra £600 for business class seats. But around ten left in disgust.
Fan Nigel Booth, 49, had paid out £1,200.
He was told he could not board the 12.20pm flight — but was given a free ticket after protesting. Nigel, of Halifax, West Yorks, said: “It was a complete disaster.
“We booked months ago. Everybody stood around in disbelief.”
Gatwick said the tickets were booked with British airline BMI but there had been a problem with the reservation transfer system.
But BMI insisted: “They should have been able to fly. There was no reason to turn them away.” The Ukraine airline did not respond to requests for a comment.
England’s penalty
marks painted in
ENGLAND stars practised penalty kicks for the first time yesterday after the spots were finally painted on their training pitch.
Polish groundsmen forgot to add the crucial markings inside the penalty box before the lush new turf was unveiled at a training session on Friday.
Team boss Roy Hodgson ordered the glitch be corrected before yesterday’s private workout for the 23-man squad at the Hutnik FC base in Krakow, whose new pitch the FA paid for.
England, who face France tomorrow, practised spot kicks for half an hour yesterday after the markings were painted the regulation 11 metres from the goal line.
The session was said to have gone well as the squad worked on ending a lamentable record which has seen them crash out of five major tournaments since 1990.
They lost shoot-outs to West Germany in 1990 and Germany in 1996, Argentina in 1998, and to Portugal in 2004 and 2006.
A team source said last night: “It was a minor oversight which has been corrected. The players will be well prepared.”
- UEFA have been given a report of alleged racist abuse by Russian fans towards a Czech player in Friday’s match.
- ENGLAND fans unfurled flags next to a Lenin statue in Donetsk, Ukraine, ahead of the clash with France tomorrow.
- DENMARK’S official representative declined a VIP seat at yesterday’s match against Holland in protest at the abuse of jailed Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko.
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