As far away from Baden-Baden as possible
England are based more secludedly than any other team. Gareth Southgate wants to avoid a repeat of the excesses of 2006 - when the players' WAGs were more in the spotlight than the football.
The England national team had a similar experience to many tourists when they traveled to their European Championship basecamp last Monday. Birmingham Airport, from which the Three Lions depart for all away games, recently introduced a new security system that allows passengers to carry liquid containers of up to two liters in their hand luggage. However, because the official permit had not yet been issued, the limit remained at 100 milliliters for the time being. The confusion led to huge queues in the early hours of the morning, which began far outside the terminal. Although the footballers did not have to queue at the back, they still felt the turbulence when it came to baggage handling. When the suitcases were being loaded, various items of clothing belonging to the Englishmen fell onto the airfield - shirts and sweaters could be seen.
Despite the complications, the team still arrived on time and in full at the Spa & Golf Resort Weimarer Land in Blankenhain, Thuringia, just under an hour's drive from the small Erfurt-Weimar airport. The DFB team recently stayed at this luxury hotel for a while. The choice had calmed the notoriously agitated island media. In the past, the English had often missed the mark when it came to accommodation. Now the Guardian wrote that the Blankenhain resort must surely be one of the best - after all, the Germans know where to stay in their own country.
"We became a kind of circus," said Rio Ferdinand about the 2006 World Cup
But that was the end of the hospitality for the time being. In the center of town, where the English held their media activities at the Blankenhain Castle Club, they were greeted with a reminder that they were on the territory of their arch-rivals. An electronic screen on the roadside displayed a tongue-in-cheek message from the Thuringian ministry, alluding to the German ancestry of British head of state Charles III: "Dear Three Lions, football is coming home - to your King's ancestors. Have a good time in Thuringia."
The location of the England team, who are more isolated than any other team at this tournament - the Germans live closest in Herzogenaurach, 150 kilometers away as the crow flies - seems like a contrast to their World Cup accommodation eighteen years ago. Back then, England's team stayed at the Schlosshotel Bühlerhöhe in the Black Forest. Although this was also far away from the action, the English Football Association had not taken into account that the neighboring casino town of Baden-Baden was an attractive destination for the glamorous and hard-drinking partners of the English professionals, including David Beckham's wife Victoria. Coach Sven-Göran Eriksson even expressly advised the players to invite their families.
The Englishmen's girlfriends turned Baden-Baden into a world attraction
In the end, the English entourage comprised 110 people. The WAGs (wives and girlfriends) kept the tabloid press busy throughout the summer weeks of that time. They turned the tranquil region into a global attraction and were given the unflattering nickname "hooligans with credit cards" - because they practically emptied all the boutiques. "We became a kind of circus," recapped defender Rio Ferdinand smugly, adding that football had almost become a minor matter. At the end, a barman famously acknowledged the unrestrained celebrations by crying uncontrollably - not because he was exhausted, but because he regretted the departure of the Englishwomen.
Such excesses are alien to England's current national team around captain Harry Kane of FC Bayern. The players are happy to be able to check into a luxury hotel again after coach Gareth Southgate chose a forest idyll in the hinterland of St. Petersburg for his first tournament, the 2018 World Cup in Russia. It bore many similarities to a youth hostel. The hotel in Blankenhain not only has an 18-hole golf course, but two and a half of them. This rules out the possibility of the players becoming as monotonous as striker Wayne Rooney, who watched old wedding videos out of boredom during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
The national team benefits from the early European Cup exit of the English clubs
England's secluded natural oasis, where even the hotel manager has to identify himself three times, is set to become the fountain of energy for the European Championships. At the beginning of the week, the media euphorically reported that all 26 squad players were together on the training pitch. In contrast to previous years, when many national team players were involved in the European Cup finals with their clubs until the very end, this time they were able to prepare in peace due to the early failure of their respective clubs. Kane now admitted that his absence from FC Bayern at the end of the league season was "largely a precautionary measure" and a "good opportunity" to take a break.
England's national team should therefore be rested and fresh for their opening game against Serbia this Sunday evening. The game will take place in Gelsenkirchen, the same venue where England were knocked out on penalties in the quarter-finals against Portugal at the 2006 World Cup.