Bognor football fan goes ‘all out’ in support of England’s bid to win the Euros

A Bognor Regis football fan has painted the St George’s cross on his front garden lawn and covered his house with flags ahead of England’s semi-final showdown with Denmark tomorrow night (July 8).

The patriotic display started out fairly small, said Liverpool supporter Wayne Keel, but grew as England progressed through the Euros.

“It started out with a flag out front, and then we stuck a few bits on the car. My eldest daughter didn’t like it all, but my neighbours encouraged me to stick more up. So it sort of just blew up from there,” he said.

“I work from home, so every time we went to the shops, me and wife thought about getting another flag. Then as England got better and better, we bought more flags.”

Of course, the flags were only the beginning, and it wouldn’t be long before the dad of three decided to go one step further, painting the St George’s Cross on his front lawn grass. Despite their initial reluctance, Mr Keel said his daughters Mia, 14, and Flo, 6, first gave him the idea.

“She showed me another dad on TikTok doing the St Georges Flag out front, so I cut my grass back and thought ‘do you know what, I’m going to look online, see if I can get some paint.’ And it just went from there, really.”

Mr Keel added that, though he and his family always put a flag out during for the World Cup and the Euros, he’s never gone this far before: “I think it was more about the embarrassment, the joke of it, and how well they’re doing in tournament. So it’s just sort of grown.”

Since England beat Germany 2-0 on June 29, Keel says he thinks England has a chance of winning the tournament, but doesn’t plan to take his decorations down if they don’t make it to the final.

“I’ll leave them up for a little bit,” he said “At least until the tournament’s ended. Although for some it, I might just have to wait until the grass grows again!”

That’s not just because he wants to celebrate how well England have done so far but because, he said ‘it was a lot of fun’ to do in the first place.