Northern Ireland vs Bulgaria (15/10/2024)

Last time around I considered writing about what matchday itself looks like for me and our other volunteers in the Amalgamation. DEALING WITH CHALLENGES

My concern during the lock-in was that the heat and lack of access to water would lead to a serious illness. It was evident that we would need to get to work, and this began even before we left the stadium. Calls were made to Irish FA staff to make them aware of the way we were locked inside our sector. This was then raised with the UEFA delegate and eventually led to the gate being unlocked. We also followed up by submitting a report to Football Supporters Europe, who in turn raised the matter with UEFA at a security event and again at a meeting of the joint UEFA-FSE working group on away fans. The Irish FA raised a complaint with UEFA, while the PSNI contacted the UK Football Policing Unit at the Home Office to make the case that they should travel for every fixture. At the moment this only happens when they’re invited by the host police. The PSNI’s role is advisory and while it wouldn’t increase the level of protection their presence has proven valuable on many occasions. There are always lessons and these can improve our Northern Ireland Fans Embassy operation, but hopefully the poor experiences are less frequent and we can enjoy Luxembourg and wherever the World Cup qualifiers take us in the way we all love! GARY McALLISTER AMALGAMATION OF OFFICIAL NORTHERN IRELAND SUPPORTERS’ CLUBS

The decision to hold off until now turned out to be timely given the experience we had in Plovdiv last month. It was one of our longest days and there was significant follow-up work needed. We’ve had difficulties in Rotterdam, Kosovo and Majorca to varying degrees, but Bulgaria was certainly challenging. What do you do when faced with the type of issues we encountered? The first thing is remain patient. Whilst it was as frustrating for me as it was for anyone else, I realised that showing that outwardly would most likely have increased tensions among other fans and possibly the host police and that wouldn’t have helped matters. All you can do is try and manage a situation and communicate with everyone you need to. While the wonders of modern technology (a WhatsApp ‘channel’ is our newest ‘tool’) allows us to connect with masses of people instantly, good old-fashioned word of mouth still has a part to play. With the help of our own volunteers and our many friends in the Northern Ireland support, we were able to pass the word around about the plans for a ‘fan walk’ to the Hristo Botev Stadium and to get other details out to the GAWA. At the end of the game we had the totally unacceptable ‘lock in’. The issue wasn’t the holdback, but rather the denial of access to water or toilet facilities and unfortunately some of our fans were attacked by thugs as they made their way back to the city centre.

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