Norris “shaken” after alleged mugging at Euro 2020 final

2021 F1 season

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McLaren has confirmed Lando Norris was left “shaken” after being involved in an incident at yesterday’s Euro 2020 football final at Wembley in London.

The 21-year-old was part of the 60,000-strong crowd at yesterday’s match, which saw England lose to Italy on penalties. Videos circulating on social media show an unspecified number of people forced their way into the stadium as the game began, and fighting taking place around the venue.

The Sun quoted a witness claiming Norris was the victim of a mugging as he left the stadium. A group of people is said to have targeted the McLaren driver, removing his watch.

McLaren issued a statement confirming Norris “was involved in an incident, after the Euro 2020 final match at Wembley, during which the watch he was wearing was taken.”

“Thankfully, Lando was unharmed but he is understandably shaken,” it continued. “The team is supporting Lando and we are sure that racing fans will join us in wishing him all the best for the British Grand Prix this weekend.

“As this is now a police matter we cannot comment further.”

The Metropolitan Police have made 86 arrests relating to the policing of the event.

Norris shared images of himself at the stadium shortly after the end of the match, saying: “Congrats on the win Italy. You did us proud England.”

Lando Norris, Wembley Stadium, 2021
Lando Norris, Wembley Stadium, 2021

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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96 comments on “Norris “shaken” after alleged mugging at Euro 2020 final”

  1. I’m really ashamed to be British at the moment.

    We really need to take a good look at how we can change this yob mentality. There was rubbish and smashed glass all over London at the weekend. Sadly it’s not just limited to football. Where ever you get large crowds of people in the UK you seem to get huge piles of rubbish, vandalism and violence. Then there is the racism and disrespect shown towards Germany, Italy and our own players.

    You do not see the same issues in other parts of Europe, not to this extent. The people doing it would portray themselves as “proud to be British/English” or whatever but there is no national pride in the behaviour of any of these people. It is pack, yob mentality and the authorities do not care and the police can’t act. I am so sick of seeing litter everywhere and sick of seeing damage to public property.

    It’s a sad truth that I wouldn’t have gone anywhere near Wembley because personally I wouldn’t feel safe. This is a country which thinks it’s the business and is still relevant on a global stage, but as the years go by I am just more and more embarrassed.

    I am very sorry to all my European/American friends who have come here and either witnessed or been victim to this kind of thing. I promise that as hard as it is it to believe, those who act in this way are a minority and the vast majority are just as disgusted by their antics as you are.

    I wish there was a solution.

    1. 100 percent agree however there seems something more to all this. The huge volume of racist tweets and crazy behaviour before the game even started. It’s similar to the small groups that hijacked BLM marches last summer. It’s as if theres some kind of underground anarchist movement.

      1. Sorry Marlp, many of the BLM marchers don’t act much differently than the idiots at the Euro final.

      2. Or maybe an underground fascist movement, rather than anarchist, if my history lessons still serve.

    2. A sad state of affairs when wearing a posh watch is an invitation to be mugged. I shall stick to my Casio digital (plastic) watch, its accurate and undesirable.

      1. @denis1304

        You and al qaeda I’m sure you meant to write.

        Lol, I wonder how many will get that obscure reference.

      2. The same happened to Bernie back in 2010 when he lost a Hublot watch. Of course, being Bernie, he capitalised on it and made an advert for Hublot featuring his battered face. It seems not much has changed in 10 years or so.

    3. “You do not see the same issues in other parts of Europe, not to this extent.”
      Well, except when Brits go on holiday in other parts of Europe.

    4. petebaldwin (@)
      13th July 2021, 2:32

      * English, not British. Don’t drag the rest of us into it! We can behave, don’t boo other countries national anthems, don’t racially abuse our own players, don’t smash up our capital city and so on…

      1. Scots are famous for booing the English anthem God Save the Queen on numerous occasions involving matches between Scotland and England, leading to debate that the anthem should be changed.

        1. I think he means other countries except England ( due historical tensions.) But i understood what you wanted to say here..

        2. petebaldwin (@)
          13th July 2021, 9:57

          I’m not Scottish so I’m sure someone who is could give a more detailed answer than me. There are specific reasons why they did that.

          For example, some Scots don’t like God Save The Queen because of the supposed 6th verse which is no longer sung that references “Rebellious Scots to Crush”

          https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12308256.the-racist-british-nationalist-and-anti-scottish-anthem/

          It’s also the United Kingdom national anthem – something that many Scots don’t want to be part of. If you played an anthem to represent the EU during the past few years with Brexit going on, I’m sure lots would have booed that.

          Add to that the many, many years of tension between the two countries….

          England booed the Denmark anthem and would have booed any other country’s anthem they happened to be playing against. It’s not based on anything specific other than showing disrespect to whichever country you are facing.

        3. The only thing we are famous for is hating the English. We managed to play against England at Wembley and there was no racism, mugging, vandalism and infact there were videos showing Scots fans clearing up London the next day. This is not the action of brits it’s English, always has been, they are an embarrassment and I just hope the rest of the world knows Scotland as part of Britain aren’t associated with this behaviour.

    5. At least ours all wear red MAGA hats so they easily stand out.

    6. Oh, make no mistake, we are well aware that most of you guys are normal, decent people who wish no harm on anyone!

      Greetings from Germany

      PS: you can be really proud of your team. They didn’t succumb to the immense pressure and fought bravely until the end.

    7. Agreed. The behaviour of the fans was just embarrassing.

      Luckily, around here (in Oregon, US west coast) the only thing that the locals are really aware of is the performance of the team itself, and they got very high marks for sportsmanship as well as their sporting prowess.

    8. I fully understand the shame and concern, knowing that it’s a minority causing the majority of problems. I wish I could agree with you that it is an english problem. But it isn’t. Over here, in Holland it’s quite the same attitude. People can’t handle a victory or a defeat anymore, and when there are large crowds together there’s always some kind of trouble or riot.

      1. Most football fans are NOT hooligans, or in this case thieves.

        I was in London last month when the England Scotland game was played. When I got back to the hotel a few Scottish supporters were drowning their sorrows. The next morning, many were out sightseeing, all were well mannered, and some went back to the fan zone that had been set up in Leicester Square and tidied up the litter from the previous night.

    9. As an American, the ultimate nationality for lumping everyone as a war mongering, fat, arrogant, uneducated, etc., I am exquisitely sensitive to how inaccurate generalizations almost always are. Bottom line, there are A LOT of stupid people in every country.

      1. Yes but as Americans, in the last few years, we take the cake. no contest. Nobody else has had there January 6th.

        1. their…

        2. Yes, amazing how many people still worship the twice impeached, one term worst president in the history of the United States.

        3. Don’t even go there. Your side rioted for the last year, seriously harmed people, burned buildings down, some even governmental, looted, and you wanna look at the actions of one day by a bunch of goobers and push it off as common? Don’t!

          1. @jblank I assume you are referring to the police (who were recorded as doing all that and more)?

          2. I suppose this is what you think happened if you watch right wing propaganda on TV and call that news.

          3. @jblank Are you seriously comparing citizens demanding the equal rights they have been guaranteed under law but have been systematically denied for decades to a mob trying to forcefully overthrow a duly elected government? Calling them “goobers” and attempting to minimize the events that took place when they stormed the Capital in military gear, using military formations, openly admitted to “storming the Capital”, killed one police officer and attacked 140 more, planted pipe bombs, and then promised to return and have “blood running out of the building” unless Trump was unlawfully declared the President again is a tactic that is not going to work.

          4. @g-funk I am comparing them to the rioters, not the legitimate protestors. We’re talking two different things and NO the police officer that died, died from a stroke which was not a result of any actions of anyone there and that is why nobody was charged with any crime against him.

            The pipe bomb planter has yet to be caught but odds are he was on the left as he attempted to bomb the RNC HQ also. You have a lot of misinformation in your post but that’s what happens with the left, they latch on to something and don’t have any interest in getting the facts.

          5. Blanky, you need help. I think you have been programmed by Fox News and need some perspective.

    10. For those saying I’m ashamed to be English “at the moment” this isn’t a new problem. For centuries the British lower classes have been used as a tool to spread “civilisation” to the four corners of the earth using brutality and violence ( India, Africa, North America etc.). Do you expect this tool to now not be racist and violent?
      The solution is education of working class people over an extensive period of time but that’s not the priority of the ruling classes.
      On a side note, I hope Lando is ok and hope he’ll use the experience to fuel him to a great performance at his double home GP!

    11. It’s rubbish indeed, but you really shouldn’t think Britain stands out much in this respect

    12. Lol the irony of this British exceptionalism – the idea that the UK in uniquely racist, littering, yobbish at football etc – is that it is itself exceptionalist. Take a look around the world mate, you’ll see plenty worse than the UK.

      We Brits love to bash ourselves. Let’s not let a tiny idiotic racist minority speak for all of us. They do not represent me!

    13. MSO, as others have pointed out, there are many others who are also equally likely to engage in similar levels of violence – similar incidents of assaults and racially motivated abuse have been recorded at events in France, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Russia and many other countries in the past few years.

      In particular, there have been those on the far right who have been actively seeking to take over fan organisations in a number of nations in order to manipulate those within them into extremist behaviour. It is not a problem unique to England, and indeed it is an issue that seems to be getting worse in recent years due to the upsurge in extreme right wing terrorist organisations in a number of nations.

    14. @MSO Your comment here was the best possible way for you to react, in my opinion. A small vocal minority of people use sports the world over as excuses for terrible behavior (hockey games where I come from). I am glad to have found F1, as it seems that sportsmanship is not dead in the fanbase.

  2. What concerns me a little more is the fact that so many drivers were out and about on the weekend in large crowds (Wimbledon, The football, Goodwood etc.) with no masks and seemingly no real social distancing.

    Doesn’t that make a complete farce of the F1 “bubble” and just invite the virus to potentially impact the remainder of the season?

    1. Sort of. I suspect all of the F1 participant have been vaccinated so I’m not sure what wearing a mask at the event really does. Having said that, there are so many F1 mask wearers with their noses exposed, which totally negates any benefit, that I don’t see the point anymore. It’s been interesting to watch how poorly the team masks stay above the nose during an interview; when talking jaw motion just slowly pulls the mask down until the speaker has to re-adjust it every few moments.

      Here in Washington state (northwest corner of the US) we have achieved more than 70% inoculation of over 16 year olds and mask requirements have been lifted and life is returning to normal. Of course, in some states over here the rate is in the 30% range. I won’t comment on the commonality of those states…. but will say not all Americans are idiots, just, unfortunately, quite a few.

      1. Even with vaccinations new variants are able to escape immune response and in some cases it is leading to serious issues.

    2. How are people doing with the vaccines in the UK? Some parts of the US have gotten most of the population their shots and things are getting back to normal.

      1. Deaths per population from Covid in the US is 5 in a million, compared to 3 in a million in the UK. Not as bad as Colombia at least where it’s 75 in a million. Does frustrate me how some parts of the world think the battle is already won. On a global scale the death tally has been trending linearly for over a year now.

        There will be a lot of people around the world who see photos from Wimbledon and think, Tom Cruise doesn’t wear a mask, why should I.

      2. As there was a correlation between serious illness deaths and age, the vaccinations in the UK were first distributed to those medically vulnerable, then to the elderly, then working down the age ranges.

        Currently this means everyone vulnerable or over 35 will have been offered both doses already or are about to get their second, everyone 18-35 will have had their first and will have their second soon. The latest figures I saw had 87% of the adult population having 1 jab and 66% having had both, there will be exceptions in there for people who chose not to get the jab or are unable to have the vaccination.

      3. Just under 2/3 of the UK is fully vaccinated. Most of those who are not are the under-30s who have not yet had the opportunity to get dose #2, though some people of all ages are “vaccine-hesitant” (a term used in the UK because most of them eventually do get the vaccine, just later than the people around them; the number of outright refusers has proven to be quite small, if exceptionally noisy).

        Unfortunately a lot of people (including politicians) seem to think that’s the whole solution and have stopped doing other protective measures.

    3. I think it’s the other way around. A bit awkward to see all these people with masks in the paddock while the stands are full. I’m 100% almost everyone in F1 has been vaccinated already.

      1. Damn no edit button.

        Especially given these F1 masks seem, for the most part, rather poor fits and probably are just for show anyway.

        1. Hah! You got it! Good for you man, congrats!
          It’s all for show!
          I feel like everyone knows it, some are just too emotionally involved to admit they were played like a cheap kazoo!

      2. I do get fed up of yelling at the screen telling drivers several hundred miles away to put their masks on properly…

    4. Jack (@jackisthestig)
      13th July 2021, 2:32

      They are human. I’m sure they have been eager to get back to normal, attending events and following their interests outside of work just like the rest of us. At this moment in time in the UK at least, it appears that most people’s honest belief is that masks and distancing are just things you have to be seen to be complying with at certain times.

    5. It shouldn’t concern you. People are getting back on with their lives, and rightfully so

      1. People getting back on with their lives who haven’t been vaccinated are putting others lives at risks, and are walking variant factories. It’s the most selfish & deadly behavior.

      2. RJ, their behaviour has already caused several hospitals to close to non-emergency patients this week. On current patterns, England will be in lockdown #4 in a month. So yes, people pretending it’s all sorted are everyone’s problem.

    6. All these events were pilots to test whether large crowds of vaccinated people are safe or not. In fact, the British GP is also one of these pilot events and will have the largest crowd so far.

  3. Where was his inner “chuck” when he need the most?

  4. Many robberies in London, involving expensive watches. Wearing a 200k wristwatch is really dangerous if you go in places like this.
    Good thing he is ok!

  5. Good thing he only lost a watch, although I’m surprised how someone managed to get it without him noticing.

    1. I believe that the RM that he wears to races is only supported by an elastic wrist band. I don’t actually know if that is the watch that was stolen but that would be my assumption.

    2. @jerejj from what I understood, it rather went “give us your watch or else…”

    3. Think I read somewhere that one grabbed him and another tore the watch from his wrist in seconds. He would have noticed that I think.

    4. If you don’t want to get mugged, don’t wear an expensive watch, not even a fake one. It’s the sad reality these days.
      (not blaming Lando for anything, just to illustrate how many people are desperate for money)

      1. That’s just victim blaming and blame culture. You should be able to wear whatever you want.

    5. Norris was “shaken”, not “stirred” …

  6. I think you should carify that before people asumes the worst……………………

    1. Too late.

  7. There is 1 football match and the capital gets trashed, tourists attacked, the stadium charged, England fans beaten up, fighting with the police, and the player abused.

    And then as an outsider you wonder whether the stories of can’t go out for a nice drink or dinner in the high street during the weekend are an exaggeration, which in fact were understatements…

    It’s so sad.

    1. It was Italian fans who were brutally attacked by “civilized” English.

      1. Chaitanya In this instance at least, England fans were beating up a fellow England fan…

        1. Most news outlets here showed England fans picking off Italian fans and beating them up brutally even trashing Italian flag apart from the obvious rioting in London.

  8. Where was his detail ? Aside from being fired today, that is

    …dont tell me Mr Norris doesn’t have hired help for “crowd control” for his son from a very young age

  9. Stephen Higgins
    13th July 2021, 9:54

    This weekend will hopefully show how much better behaved F1 fans are than football fans.

    1. Short of rioting Tifosi(current gen) arent much different, they always boo non Ferrari winners. Similar story with Italian fans of Rossi at Italian events who would boo winner of race(in many cases they used to be encouraged by Rossi to boo).

    2. This is what I was drawn to about F1 from a kid watching in my living room at 6am alone. All of these people from around the world coming together to build these incredible cars and racing them. Britons and Germans and Italians on the same design teams, French driving for Italians, Germans driving for a Swiss team. It was like a vision of the future. Yes there were anthems and people setting off national-color flares in the stands but when you go to a race there is no sense that things are going to seriously jump off if the wrong team loses. But yeah maybe don’t make eye contact with the enormous shirtless dude in face-paint and the belligerent 5-beer stare.

      1. @dmw I too was drawn to the idea that F1 was some sort of gentlemanly and gracious sport where the competitors were friends and it was all just pure sport after having read F1 books from the pre-70s era, but boy was I wrong when I actually started watching in the 90s.

        Maybe it was fine before, and that something changed in the Senna-era, but just look at the articles and comments here and everywhere or the fans at the races, it’s us against them all over. Booing, fighting, flag-waving and jabs all over. I still have a forlorn hope that it will all change when we get a new generation of non-belligerent drivers and all the fan fanatics are gone, but I guess that will take time.

    3. I think we will all be pleasantly reminded of how civilized crowds of people can be this weekend.

  10. Went to London, got mugged, sounds like a typical visit.

  11. Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
    13th July 2021, 11:27

    Absolutely horrific. The events after the final have completely overshadowed what should have been a positive for our nation. We have an underbelly of pond life in this country that use football as their religion. Our alcohol fuelled chav minority are utterly shameless.

    They spoil football but manage to leave the other sports to a higher class of individual.

  12. Football fans in hooliganism shocker…

    Unfortunately none of us are surprised, and very little will change.

  13. Hope this won’t affect Norris, but likely it will sadly. As for the hooligan British fans we’ve seen this in F1 with booing of Rosberg etc, but when it comes to really bad stuff, I believe nothing beats Brazil with several F1 staff getting mugged there and something bad happening almost every time there. I seem to remember Button was even in a car chase with armed robbers? I think because of this, there even talk that the whole country would be dropped as a venue because of the atrocious behaviour, and it probably should.

    1. Jack (@jackisthestig)
      13th July 2021, 17:46

      I’m sorry but referring to the pantomime booing of Rosberg as British hooliganism is ridiculous.

      1. @jackisthestig Just Hamilton fans then?

        1. Jack (@jackisthestig)
          13th July 2021, 19:54

          No no, there has never been anything resembling hooliganism among Formula One spectators whatever teams or drivers they support. I can’t think of another sport with such a large but well behaved crowd. Personally I’d like the crowd at Silverstone to be a bit more vocal and boisterous. I’m a Swansea City supporter and there is nothing like the atmosphere at a derby match with our neighbours Cardiff but that sort of rivalry just isn’t an aspect of F1.

          1. That’s just not correct. Rosberg was consistently booed. I’ve only ever heard that in football and F1.

    2. I think that Norris is made of sterner stuff, despite his soft exterior. He kind of reminds me of a young Graham Hill, to be honest. Charismatic, grounded and talented.

      1. @ferrox-glideh No, Norris has been quite outspoken about his mental issues like anxiety so will likely have taken a knock from this. Especially as it happened in UK where he thought he had a safe haven.

        1. He has shared his emotions publicly, against the stiff-upper-lipped establishment of old, but that has no bearing on how he will react to this. I would say, from my experience, that people who are not in touch with their anxieties are more vulnerable to traumatic events. Resilience requires tempering, after all.

    3. @balue
      Sao Paulo is extremely dangerous by default and cannot be compared to the UK. When this stuff happens in London, it’s shocking. However, it’s everyday routine in Sao Paulo. You don’t want to wear a cheap watch in Sao Paulo if you don’t want to get in trouble. I’m off course not talking about the secure area where the rich usually hangout in their armoured vehicles or taxiing in helicopters.

      Button was attacked in the 2010 Brazilian GP and was saved by the police officer driving the car who managed to escape the armed robbers and save his life.

  14. Adam (@rocketpanda)
    13th July 2021, 13:42

    It’s disappointing. In fact most things to do with this country are disappointing lately.

    1. Adam (@rocketpanda)
      13th July 2021, 13:45

      Actually another thought. I’m really not sure McLaren, or any of the F1 websites should carry this story.

      Like I’ve been in that position and you do get a sense of shame or embarrassment, and for me alone the idea of other people knowing I’d experienced that would be horrible so for Norris to have it blasted across the news is kinda horrible. I mean obviously you kinda get to grips with those feelings in time but it does take a bit of time. Mentally I hope he’s in a decent place.

      1. @rocketpanda Are you seriously suggesting they should have pretended it didn’t happen?

  15. That weekend wasn’t a good look for the UK (or England, or however that argument has come out). But as an (U.S.) American, I guess we have to wait for a giant mob of people to attack the House of Commons hunting for MPs and assaulting police officers and planting pipe bombs after an election, before we can wag fingers. I hope Norris can get his head back in a good place; being attacked in a mob where you feel helpless like that can mess with your mind and have lasting effects.

    1. @dmw In fairness, I’ve not heard of any reports of American sports fans doing large-scale assaults on either the other team’s fans or their own during international matches recently. Hard to wag fingers at people who aren’t misbehaving (especially when there are people elsewhere, in other settings, who are).

  16. Hasn’t this kind of thing been going on for at least 40 years? I thought being rude at football games was normal for English people and a huge part of the draw. If your team wins you beat people up. If your team loses you beat people to a pulp. Please inform me if this is incorrect. i don’t follow football or live in England but I read the book Among the Thugs. I thought the violent behavior changed when the police started cracking down in the late 80s / early 90.

    1. Exactly. As far as I can remember there are hooligans. Or people don’t remember the Liverpool vs Juventus incident?

    2. Jack (@jackisthestig)
      13th July 2021, 20:32

      Yes it has been going on for a long time though it’s been a lot less prevalent over the last 15 to 20 years. At its worst it was essentially mass fighting organised by large travelling groups loosely attached to football clubs, they weren’t really interested in football and didn’t even attend matches. The fighting would take place away from the stadiums, even in train stations and Motorway services.

      Travelling between cities on matchdays is far more tightly restricted and monitored by the police thesedays. Away supporters travel in official ‘bubbles’ not unlike the way the F1 circus has operated during the COVID pandemic.

  17. Lando has always been very open and engaging with his fans, more so than any other driver with what he shares in Twitch and social media, and he really doesnt need to do that, he does that off his own back and sometimes receives backlash for it. I hope this incident doesn’t change that, but it very well could. If it were me personally, I wouldn’t engage with the fans anymore as it’s really a privilege for the fans that he shares so much of his personal stuff.

  18. Why is it an “alleged” mugging? Poor headline by this site again.

  19. Sergey Martyn
    15th July 2021, 11:26

    The most violent crime conducted during the whole football World Cup 2018 has turned into a complaint by a female Chinese tourist who took two ‘Argentinian’ fans (later they were identified as Armenians) into her hotel suite and had a sparkiling sex with them which she liked very much but her complaint to Russian police was that they filmed the whole escapade, and she demanded to find them and check whether the video was removed from their phones.

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