I WAS at Wembley stadium as a punter this week for England v Hungary.

It was a treat for my son who turned 15 the day before. For such a lively, sporty boy, Covid has been tough for him – and countless other youngsters.

It can’t have been easy stuck indoors for so long, with such uncertainty. About life, about school, about the future. 

So I was overjoyed when he jumped at the chance of watching Gareth Southgate’s Three Lions at the national stadium.

On the journey there I bored him, and my youngest daughter who also came along, with tales of travelling the world watching the England football team in the last century. 

While the football was invariably grim back then — and always ultimately disappointing, from Eindhoven to Tel Aviv, Katowice to Shizuoka — away from the pitch there was always fun and laughter, tales, scrapes and camaraderie with old pals I still keep in touch with more than two decades on. 

Through my youngsters’ glazed eyes and focus on their phones, my message to my kids on our journey to watch the less than mighty Magyars earlier this week, was that things are far better now than they were 20, 30 or 40 years ago — especially compared to watching football in the 1980s. 

Better in terms of facilities, in terms of crowd control, in terms of policing, in terms of ticketing, in terms of the overall experience. 

I am against modern football in so many respects, but do I want a return to the dark days of the 1980s? No. Absolutely not. 

However, when Tuesday night at Wembley was marred by Hungary’s hideous racists and fascists, it got me thinking. 

Back in the 1980s, many people, including my teachers, used to think I was slightly deranged by attending football matches.

As a young kid watching games in the 1980s, week in week out during that decade, now 40 years distant, hooligans and racists were everywhere, along with bad policing and a sinister air of menace.

Yet, are things better now? Have we actually moved on at all since the dreadful 1980s in terms of our national game? If we study a few post-pandemic events, can we genuinely say we have improved? 

Over the course of the last few months, I’ve seen crowd trouble up and down the country, from Lancashire to Hertfordshire, and now at Wembley this week. As regular readers of this column may recall, I was there for the Euro 2020 final in July. 

It was a dreadful day. The excitement that Gareth Southgate’s wonderfully diverse and dignified squad generated during their stunning run to the final evaporated in the build-up to kick-off at Wembley that afternoon. 

There was no organisation. Stewarding was non-existent. Police were overwhelmed and incapable. Many fights and scuffles broke out, and there was an all-pervading air of menace by a large number who were only there to rush the gates — many of whom successfully gained illegal entry, as I witnessed with my own eyes. 

The levels of drunkenness were off the scale. I saw many families in fear. The whole day could have easily been transplanted from the 1980s. 

And when three, proud, inspirational, intelligent, beautiful black men missed their penalties on that warm summer night, they received a deluge of racist abuse on social media.

The fact that social media companies shamefully refused to act in the immediate aftermath made it all the more depressing. 

Hiding behind lame excuses was simply unacceptable, certainly when you consider how quickly the very same companies act against those who share illegal streams.

But then racism doesn’t cost Facebook, Instagram and Twitter money, does it? If it did, you can guarantee they would act far more quickly. 

Nor did the police cover themselves in glory during the summer, or this week.

Complacent was the word used by many after the final and this week. Because, if you know you are playing a showcase event — or a high-risk team that has previously been sanctioned for having racist fans — then surely you should tailor your approach accordingly? 

Yet they failed to do that. Cue subsequent crowd disorder on both occasions. 

I have no wish to go back to the 1980s and, of course, in so many respects things are better on so many levels, for so many reasons.

But things aren’t perfect. In fact, we should be greatly alarmed at things that are going on in our game, such as the rise of racism and fascism. 

On Tuesday night at Wembley, when my kids asked me why Hungarian football fans booed England players taking a knee. The only truthful answer is that people who boo the knee are racists. 

Despite English players showing solidarity in the fight against racism, my kids were genuinely shocked that, conversely, there are people out there who do not want to join the fight against racism. 

They were fascists in that away end, clad in their hideous black tops, redolent of fascists from decades past and present.

Nor did I have an answer when Hungarian fans started fighting police in the travelling section. What do you say to your children who ask why people fight at football matches? What can you say?

After the final whistle was blown to end an underwhelming 1-1 draw, played in front of nearly 70,000 people, my son turned to me and said: “I don’t like Hungarian football fans, they’re racists.”