Why Croatia v England Is Being Played Behind Closed Doors

The Rujevica stadium in Rijeka, which hosted the 2018 meeting between the sides (pictured during a match in 2017) | Photo: Dragan Janjušević / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0

England travel to Rijeka on Saturday for a Nations League game that, officially, nobody is allowed to watch. The match against Croatia is classed as behind closed doors. In practice it will have a crowd of a few thousand, and the reason it exists at all goes back to a night at the Stade de France in March 2025.

What happened in Paris

Croatia were playing France in the Nations League when trouble broke out in their section of the ground. Supporters set off fireworks, and seven fans were taken into custody on suspicion of making Nazi salutes. All seven were released without prosecution because of a lack of evidence, but Uefa had seen enough. The punishment was a reduced-capacity fixture, and England drew it.

Croatia have been feeling the effects for a while. Last Saturday they beat the Czech Republic 2-1 without a single travelling supporter in the stadium, because their fans were prohibited from attending that away match.

Who will actually be inside

Between 3,000 and 6,000 Croatian schoolchildren have been given permission to attend. It is an unusual way to fill a stadium, and it will make for a stranger sound than a full house would. England fans were first told they could not come at all. After talks between England and Uefa, the Football Association was granted 100 complimentary tickets to hand out to supporters.

The ground is the same one that staged England's last visit under these conditions. That game in October 2018 finished 0-0, again played in front of empty stands.

A rematch with some history

The two sides met at the World Cup this summer, when England won 4-2 in Dallas. Croatia will want to prove that result was not the whole story, and a young, noisy crowd of schoolchildren is hardly the hostile environment England might have prepared for. They will notice the quiet all the same. Players talk often about feeding off a crowd, and on Saturday there will be very little of the usual noise to feed on.

Fixture facts: Croatia v England, Uefa Nations League, Saturday 3 October 2026, Rijeka | reduced crowd after Uefa sanction for fan disturbances v France, March 2025 | England won 4-2 at the 2026 World Cup in Dallas | source: BBC Sport.