England fever sweeps nation as reproduction shirts offered out forward of ultimate

England fever swept the nation yesterday as replica shirts sold out, shops and restaurants pledged to close early and primary schools promised to allow bleary-eyed pupils to come in late on Monday.

A mad scramble for flights, hotel rooms and tickets to the Euro 2024 final on Sunday ensued after the team’s dramatic victory over the Netherlands.

While Three Lions fans at home began booking flights to Berlin, those already following the team in Germany were piling on to trains bound for the capital in the hope of witnessing England’s first tournament victory on foreign soil.

But it isn’t just the hopes of the nation that have soared – room rates in Berlin have also rocketed, and many flights were already sold out yesterday.

Up to 50,000 fans could travel to the German capital in the hope of seeing England make history by securing their first trophy on foreign soil.

But fans who haven’t managed to get tickets will still be able to look forward to sunshine as the weather is set to improve over the weekend after a disappointing start to July including long spells of rain and thunderstorms.

Temperatures on Sunday evening are expected to reach as high as 24C across central and southern parts of England, with highs of 21C in Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England.

Greg Dewhurst, forecaster at the Met Office, told the PA news agency that Sunday evening ‘will feel quite warm in the sunshine’, adding ‘any showers that are around should fade away’.

Stand-up comic John Bishop moved his gig in Wolverhampton on Sunday night to the afternoon so the Liverpool fan can watch the big match.

The majority of the Ivy chain’s restaurants will also close at 7pm on Sunday, along with all of the Bill’s chain’s branches so that staff can watch the final, while Tesco had previously announced its Express stores would also close ahead of kick off.

JD Sports’ website was yesterday sold out of England’s away shirt, while only small, medium and XXL sizes of the home shirt – worn in every game of the tournament so far – were available.

Nike’s online store had run out of home shirts in large size while away shirts were sold out in large, XL and XXL, although Sports Direct had better levels of stock.

West Wycombe School was among those offering children a ‘soft start’ on Monday morning ‘so that they could stay up a bit later on Sunday to see the big match’.

The match is unlikely to finish much before 10pm, and could be nearer to 11pm if England are taken to penalties again. But a post on the primary school’s Facebook page said that children could arrive anytime from 8.30am to 10.30am on Monday morning.

All of Ryanair’s 21 flights from UK airports to Berlin between Thursday and the final are sold out, while some airlines with spare capacity were charging five times more to travel before the game compared with a week later. 

EasyJet’s 12 flights to Berlin from Birmingham, Bristol, Luton and Gatwick between Friday and the match are also fully booked, but still had flights from Manchester available yesterday.

Tickets for Sunday night’s final at the Olympiastadion were on offer on the Stubhub resale site for between £925 and as much as £12,003 for a hospitality seat.

But after London Mayor Sadiq Khan was branded a ‘killjoy’ for failing to set up a public screening of the semi-final, the Labour politician announced that the final will broadcast at The O2 for 15,000 lucky ticketholders.

James Lane, 46, a company director from Bridgnorth, Shropshire, made a spur of the moment decision to fly out to Dortmund on Tuesday for the semi-final against the Netherlands with friend Andy Simmons.

He added: ‘I was supposed to be going to Butlins in Skegness with the wife and kids for this weekend but she’s taking them on her own now. She’ll be alright – I just couldn’t come this far and not see it through to Berlin.’

He joked: ‘It’s coming home – but I might not be!’

Berlin’s Hilton Hotel was charging £1,199.56 for Sunday night when the match is played, but the next night the price drops to £114.48. A two-night stay at the Crown Plaza Berlin City Centre Ku’damm is £612 per night this weekend, but just £93 per night the weekend after.

A JD Sports spokesman said: ‘JD’s England merchandise sales skyrocketed over six-fold for last night’s epic semi-final win against the Netherlands – having already jumped by almost three times around the dramatic victory on penalties against Switzerland in the quarter final.’

An easyJet spokesman said its pricing was demand-led, which had meant fares have risen.

BA said it saw a 1,000 per cent increase in searches for flights to Berlin in the hour after Wednesday’s match. The airline said it was ‘looking at putting on additional flights and changing the aircraft type to bigger jets’ to get more fans to Berlin.