IRISH police have cancelled all leave for their officers ahead of this weekend’s clash between England and Ireland at the Aviva Stadium.
It comes as the pair meet in their first ‘competitive’ fixture since a shameful night of rioting in a friendly match some 29 years ago.
It’s one of only two England games to have ever been abandoned, a clash between two nations with a rivalry steeped in both political and footballing history.
Abandoned after 27 minutes, the battle at Lansdowne Road in Dublin was overshadowed by sickening crowd trouble.
The UK’s then Prime Minister, John Major, described what happened as “a disgrace and a very great embarrassment”.
Some 30 English fans were put through the Irish legal system after their arrests for participating in events that saw bloodied supporters, disgraceful fighting and distraught children all caught on camera inside the ground.
Perhaps most controversially, the National Football Intelligence Unit claimed that it had warned Irish Garda, weeks in advance, that 11 separate hooligan groups had made plans to travel to the game.
While other reports claim that pre-match meetup fights and sightings of banned fans were ignored ahead of kick off.
However, the Irish FA (FAI) claimed that they only knew of banned travelling British nationals being identified in the ground just FIVE MINUTES prior to kick off.
Even before rioting began, England fans had brought shame upon the nation with political chanting and Nazi salutes from the stands.
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Ireland were playing that day under the management of England World Cup winning star Jack Charlton, who had been greeted onto the pitch by chants of “Judas” from the travelling Three Lions support.
A strange foreshadowing ahead of this Saturday’s game at the Aviva, with England’s interim boss Lee Carsley to become the first former Ireland international to manage England – and typically taking charge of his first game against his former nation.
After the shame of 1995, Charlton made clear his stance on what had happened, saying: “I’ve seen a lot in football but I’ve never seen anything like that. Every Englishman should be ashamed.”
That horrific night impacted the rivalry between the two nations for a long time, and arguably still does to this day.
England and Ireland didn’t play again for over 18 years, with the Three Lions welcoming their rivals to Wembley back in 2015 – a game that ended in a 1-1 draw.
It took another two years after that for England to return to Irish soil, playing their first game back in the Republic of Ireland in 2015 – this time playing out a goalless draw with their historical foe.
In fact, six of the last seven ties between the two nations have ended in draws with England the only side to win a game in that time, a 3-0 victory under Gareth Southgate when the teams last faced off in 2020.
But every game since that 1995 horror has been played under the guise of a friendly, while this weekend’s match is – in theory – a competitive fixture.
The Nations League will of course not hold the same weight as World Cup and European Championship clashes between the two sides in the past.
But make no mistake, if these teams didn’t already want to win this game, the competitive nature will make them want it even more.
The abandoned fixture in 1995 only marks the modern era of this rivalry with feisty clashes stretching all the away back to the 1940’s between these two sides.
To the point where even 17 years before the riots, in a 1978 qualifier for Euro ’80, English and Irish authorities had agreed to not sell any tickets to anyone with an English postcode.
Since the mark of the modern era there’s still been plenty of controversy between the two nations, despite only playing three games in nearly 30 years.
That modern controversy comes more in the form of the players than the fans.
Two of England’s stars, Declan Rice and Jack Grealish, were both lured away from representing the Boys in Green – with the former even getting three caps under his belt before making the switch.
Expect a frosty reception for Rice and Grealish on Saturday with Rice set to become the first England player to ever play against Ireland having represented the country at senior level in the past.
The stars have since been sold for a combined £205MILLION and will be considered crucial to England’s plans going forward as they head into the prime of their careers.
But Ireland assistant boss John O’Shea doesn’t want to engage in the “what ifs” of the past, choosing to focus on the talent his side have already.
Ahead of Saturday’s game, he said: “Look, it’s one of them – it’s a focus on us, the players that are here, the players that want to be here. It’s as simple as that.
“He’s not here, he’s in the England squad so you can’t keep talking about it.”
Some 350 members of Ireland’s public order unit will be on duty for Saturday’s game as a precaution to potential violence.
While the UK’s Football Policing Unit will also travel across to Dublin to assist with managing crowds.
In a measure to ensure there is enough of a policing presence, Garda have cancelled leave for their officers.
England have been issued 3,000 away tickets for the Aviva clash, which kicks off at 5pm on Saturday.
Ireland will head to Wembley for the reverse fixture on November 17.
