Gareth Southgate ‘surprised’ 36,000 fans to attend England’s Nations League game at Puskas Arena in Hungary

Gareth Southgate admits he is “surprised” 36,000 people will attend Saturday’s Nations League game between Hungary and England at the Puskas Arena.

The Hungarian FA has been forced to stage five games behind closed doors after being disciplined by both UEFA and FIFA for repeated racist abuse from the stands, but 36,000 are still allowed to attend this weekend’s match.

The venue in Budapest will be nearly half full due to a loophole in UEFA’s rules which state that “children under the age of 14 from schools and/or football academies can be invited to the match free of charge”.

Every 10 children must be accompanied by one adult, meaning there will be 3,600 adults in attendance.

“We’re all surprised but we’re inviting children into our stadium [against Italy at Molineux on June 11], so I wasn’t really clear on the rules. I don’t know what the figure should be,” Southgate said at St George’s Park on Friday.

“We’re got to make sure we’re consistent in our beliefs, the stand we take as a team, that we’re united in it being unacceptable. Once we’re administering sanctions it’s gone too far anyway.”

He added: “I would imagine Hungary would feel the same way that we do about having restrictions on the home game – that they won’t want it to happen again.

“We have made our feelings clear on where we stand on inclusivity and our feelings in terms of racism and its unacceptability.

“Hopefully the young people in the stadium will realise why this opportunity has happened. We have got to keep doing the right things and setting the right example.

“I think everybody learns from every experience they’ve been through. I know our players just wanted to focus on football.”