The ATAC Chair and Vice-Chair attended a meeting with a two FCDO staff today about Consular Communications ahead of this year’s Euros.  Present were the Euros Liaison Officer at the Berlin Embassy who is assigned to Scotland’s Euro messaging, and the Consul to Ukraine who is assisting with the Scotland Consular communications for Euro 2024.

There are three main pillars to the Consular messaging.

1 – Signing up for FCDO travel advice and alerts

2 – Keeping belongings such as passport, phone etc safe during the tournament

3 – Respecting local laws and customs

The first covers items such as terror alerts, current advice all the way to mass casualty events.  We explained that signing up to these is usually a reactive behaviour, in that advice on these pages would be sought if/when something happens rather than in advance.

The second pillar is common sense and the TA has various members with a history of being serial passport losers.  We are aware that there will be on the ground help from UEFA/Euro 2024 in the event of ticket holders losing phones and will look to see that advice when it is available.

We have already covered some of the local laws and customs in our notes from the Frankfurt Fans Forum that we attended in January.  It is covered in the NFIP section from Day 1.  We will reiterate these messages over the coming months.

In addition to the active and loyal fanbase that ATAC represents we are aware that there will be many fans travelling that may not have been abroad to follow Scotland before.  Our communication channels may struggle to reach these people and this could possibly also be the case for any SFA/SSC and Consular messaging.  We have agreed to assist in pushing out important Consular messaging where we can.  The Consul staff will look to also engage the SFA and to put messaging in the media.  These can be done via match programmes, radio and TV programmes, alongside podcasts and similar digital routes.

We touched on routes that fans are taking and also where Scotland fans are likely to be based.  Currently there is no particular route or method that stands above any others.  The TA will be travelling over air, land and sea.  The superb public transport in Germany also means that fans can base themselves outwith the host cities and travel in and out for the matches.  The 36 hour free travel pass for ticket holders makes that particularly appealing.

Further meetings will be scheduled when required.



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