Euro 2024 comment: Fan-friendly Germany shows how to do major football tournaments

To do it in Germany, was to see how it is done right.

Euro 2024 has been far from perfect – selfie-invaders at Cristiano Ronaldo's (sorry, Portugal's) game against Turkey in Dortmund, Albanian and Croatian fans singing "kill, kill, kill the Serbs", the bombardment of plastic reusable cups onto the Leipzig field as Croatia played Italy, putting Stuart Attwell behind a video assistant referee's monitor (result: the most drawn-out and arguably worst VAR decisions so far to chalk off a Netherlands' goal against France), and transport nightmares for England fans trying to get back from Gelsenkirchen.

The opening-week weather was awful, but we can probably let UEFA and Germany off the hook for that.

Everyone's experiences will be different, like their ideas of what is good and bad. Other Englishmen will have had their whole first week spoilt by the stodginess of the Three Lions against Serbia and Denmark.

Mine was overwhelmingly positive.

I was fortunate enough to get tickets for Austria versus France in November – eight attempts, one on target, a bit like certain forward lines in this competition – meaning I could could get things booked quickly, blind but cheaper.

Follow-up attempts at more fell on stony ground. No need to be greedy when a tournament in the heart of Europe is so over-subscribed.

But I decided it was worth staying in Dusseldorf for a few more days to experience as well as just watch the football, and I am very glad I did.

Tickets were reasonably priced – ours were 60 euros each, but all grounds had group-stage seats for 20 or 30 – and German football culture took precedent over UEFA greed, meaning free 24-hour public transport on matchday.

Meanwhile, in the United States of America, who are hosting the Copa America, the cheapest tickets for their opening game against Bolivia apparently started at $100. The result was a 47,873 crowd in an Arlington stadium which holds 80,000.

Hopefully lessons are learnt ahead of the World Cup there in two years but do not hold your breath.

The ticket pricing in Germany fed into the show of respect for football supporters, certainly in Dusseldorf.

Generally, everyone treated each other like adults. There were no separate pubs – though the English inevitably camped in an Irish bar whilst another was wall-to-wall Scotland merchandise (including Hawaii shirts).

"No Scotland, no party,” they sang – a lot – and plenty of foreign accents joyously joined in.

Despite not playing in Dusseldorf – the game against Switzerland was in nearby Cologne – Scots were everywhere the entire time. Each day a different shirt or shirts was the next-most popular – Monday Austria, then France, Tuesday Turkey, then Portugual, Wednesday Germany, Thursday England, Friday Ukraine and plenty of Slovakia.

The last European Championship final was ruined by English morons descending on Wembley but apart from one war song by one fan on his way home from Monday’s match, the brain donors largely stayed away from Dusseldorf. Instead of flares up bums, there was a Schalke fan playing keepy-upy with a child in a kilt and a France shirt whilst balancing a pyramid of pints on his head. Either that, or someone slipped something into my Coca-Cola.

Most of the abuse was food related – Harry Kane apparently eats pizza with a spoon, and the Austrian fans' "Schnitzel is better than baguette" signs started a trend.

There was a very friendly feel as we joined Austrian and French fans on the 6km or so walk along the Rhein from Dusseldorf's old town to the former Eurovision Song Contest venue hosting our game.

In the ground, French fans waved their flags and sang La Marseillaise, Austrians bounced up and down enjoying the performance of a team England would do well to avoid in the knockouts, at least apart from an own goal by Leeds United's Max Wober. They angrily booed Kylian Mbappe, not realising until later his nose was splattered across his face.

After that, torrential rain permitting, it was fanparks – Dusseldorf had three – where you could watch on big screens for free if you did not mind the price of drinks in those reusable plastic cups, or the wall-to-wall pubs of the old town, all with tables, chairs and televisions showing the football outside.

The mood as Germany qualified for the knockouts on the only sunny day was jubilant, as subdued as the weather watching England draw with Denmark between the puddles on the terracing the next day.

Germany know how to do football – off the field and unfortunately but typically, just in the nick of time on it again, it seems.

If only those running the game spent more time out of the posh seats learning from them.