England’s WAGs are set to be kept 20 miles from their footballer partners during this summer’s Euros to prevent a repeat of the ‘circus’ that engulfed the team the last time the players competed in Germany.
The plan is being implemented to avoid what happened the last time England competed at a tournament in Germany – when the antics of WAGs including Victoria Beckham, Cheryl Cole, Alex Gerrard and Coleen Rooney overshadowed their husbands’ dire performances on the pitch.
Gareth Southgate will base his squad in a luxury remote golf and spa resort while his players’ wives and partners are said to be considering a five-star hotel which is around a 40-minute drive away.
England will stay at the Weimarer Land Golf and Spa resort in Blankenhain – costing around £800,000 with all 94 rooms secured by the FA.
MailOnline visited the hotel to find out what the players are in store for this June – and found they will want for nothing.
England will stay at the Weimarer Land Golf and Spa resort in Blankenhain – costing around £800,000 with all 94 rooms secured by the FA.
This is the Swimming pool area at Weimarer Land Spa and Golf Resort where the England football team will be based during Euro 2024
Sitting area at Weimarer Land Spa and Golf Resort
This is the Champions hall in Weimarer Land Spa and Golf Resort where team meetings will take place during the Euro 2024 tournament
Golf course and driving range at Weimarer Land Spa and Golf Resort
The Gym at Weimarer Land Spa and Golf Resort where the England football team will be based during Euro 2024
England’s Jude Bellingham celebrates with Declan Rice, Harry Kane and Phil Foden
Sitting area at Weimarer Land Spa and Golf Resort
Sommelier Thomas Sobbe holds a Bottle of Valpolicella at Weimarer Land Spa and Golf Resort where the England football team will be based during Euro 2024
Swimming pool area at Weimarer Land Spa and Golf Resort
The England stars may like a tipple only when not on international or club duty, but their hotel will still have racks of the choicest wines displayed as they move around the hotel
The dinner menu will be masterminded by chefs hired and brought in by the Football Association to ensure they have the best nutritional foods
Cabinet of wine at Weimarer Land Spa and Golf Resort where the England football team will be based during Euro 2024
Meeting room at Weimarer Land Spa and Golf Resort
England’s WAGs are set to be kept 20 miles from their footballer partners during this summer’s Euros to prevent a repeat of the ‘circus’ that engulfed the team the last time the players competed in Germany
Each player will have timber-clad rooms or suites and be provided with hand-held digital pads, linked to attentive staff phones, to ensure their every wish is the hotel’s command, 24 hours a day.
Southgate is likely to occupy one of the resort’s three best suites named Birdie, Albatross, and Eagle which each have their own exclusive sauna and free-standing bathtubs.
The suites have giant TV sets, comfy sofas and additional walk-in showers filled with Clarins bathroom accessories.
Players such as Harry Kane, Jude Bellingham and Trent Alexander-Arnold will breakfast in brightly lit restaurants with salmon, organic sourdough breads and eggs and freshly squeezed orange juice on the menu along with locally produced honey.
The dinner menu will be masterminded by chefs hired and brought in by the Football Association to ensure they have the best nutritional foods to help them give their utmost when competing in the month-long tournament which kicks off on June 14 when Germany host Scotland.
But the FA kitchen staff will have Michelin chefs Danny Schwabe and Marcello Fabbri from the complex’s The Augusta and The Masters restaurants on hand to provide food al a carte.
The two top chefs’ specialities include smoked roast beef with celery and focaccia, pink veal fillets with herbs and sauteed bread dumplings with beetroot and melted onions.
The hotel’s robot Robbie will motor around the team bringing dishes from the kitchen and removing them after use.
The England stars may like a tipple only when not on international or club duty, but their hotel will still have racks of the choicest wines displayed as they move around the hotel.
Sommelier Thomas Stobbe said: ‘The players might not be drinking, but we have the finest wines here. The most expensive is a 2001 Amarone Valpolicella which costs around £680 a bottle. But the racks will be locked.’
There is also a cigar smoking room which, again, is likely to remain empty as the international stars move in.
But in between matches and training, the footballers will be able to use two 18-hole golf courses and a nine-hole course.
But captain Kane, who is learning German while a player for Bundesliga club Bayern Munich, may have to assist his teammates as course maps inside golf course buggies are in German as well as evacuation instructions around the hotel, along with restaurant menus.
Southgate and his players can enjoy exclusive use of spas, saunas, swimming pools and the pool table.
Each player is to be provided with a jute bag containing a brown cotton robe and white peep-toe slippers.
To enter the spas, players have to be showered and robed before entering the sterile basement complex.
But there will be no pressure to join in the German sauna culture at Weimarer of nudity which is the norm there.
Despite the rooms having robes for the players, England will take their own high-end bed linen and players will also be given Three Lions bath robes with embroidered badges.
Eating area in 1 of the 2 Michelin Star Restraunts at Weimarer Land Spa and Golf Resort
Eating area in 1 of the 2 Michelin Star Restraunts at Weimarer Land Spa and Golf Resort
Sitting area and bar at Weimarer Land Spa and Golf Resort
The players will have plenty of opportunities to enjoy the entertainments
Sitting area with a view of the golf course at Weimarer Land Spa and Golf Resort where the England football team will be based during Euro 2024
Eating area in 1 of the 2 Michelin Star Restraunts at Weimarer Land Spa and Golf Resort where the England football team will be based during Euro 2024
This is a suite which England manager Gareth Southgate could stay in at Weimarer Land Spa and Golf Resort during the Euro 2024 tournament. It includes its own sauna
A player’s bedroom at the Weimarer Land Spa and Golf Resort where the England football team will be based during Euro 2024
A player’s bedroom at the Weimarer Land Spa and Golf Resort where the England football team will be based during Euro 2024
FA officials have been busy preparing for the team’s arrival in Germany and an advance party is due back there in a fortnight to check on preparations
FILE PHOTO 2006: Cheryl Tweedy, partner of Ashley Cole, Coleen McLoughlin girlfriend of Wayne Rooney and Victoria Beckham
NUREMBERG, GERMANY – JUNE 15: Coleen McLoughlin (back row, center) the girlfriend of Wayne Rooney, Girls Aloud singer Cheryl Tweedy (L), the fiancee of Ashley Cole and Victoria Beckham (R), the wife of England Captain David Beckham, attend the FIFA World Cup Germany 2006 Group B match between England and Trinidad and Tobago at the Frankenstadion on June 15, 2006 in Nuremberg, Germany
As in previous tournaments, pictures of the players’ families will feature and be placed in their rooms and fragrances with hints of bergamot, lily and jasmine will be sprayed around the hotel to help provide a ‘calming’ atmosphere.
Their team meetings to discuss tactics and assessments of opponents Serbia, Denmark and Slovenia who they meet in the initial group matches will be held in the hotel’s ‘Champions Hall’ where 23 seats for the team, a drawing board and lectern for Mr Southgate have been installed.
FA officials have been busy preparing for the team’s arrival in Germany and an advance party is due back there in a fortnight to check on preparations.
For those players who want to hit the golf courses, their rooms will have two free tees with complimentary chocolates on their table and clubs are provided with the courses surrounded by idyllic pine trees and forest land.
There is also table tennis, chess and a cinema screen streaming the latest movies.
Despite its splendour, there is also a touch of low budget provided by hotel management – with a vending machine providing fizzy drinks and packets of Haribos at £2 a throw on the second floor where most players will stay.
A massive security cordon will be thrown around the venue with only players and staff allowed access.
Southgate is believed to have chosen the venue, which is set almost a mile from the main road, to allow his players freedom from any intrusions or diversions.
England’s team HQ was initially Germany’s preferred choice – but the Germans will now check in and check out a week before Southgate’s team arrive as the FA got in first.
The Germans will stay at the venue and use the training facilities but be forced to leave at the end of May to give staff time to prepare for England’s visit from June 8th.
The last time England played in a major tournament in Germany was at the 2006 World Cup when the WAGs became a major distraction around the team’s HQ in Baden Baden.
A source said: ‘Everyone at the hotel is excited that not only Germany, but also England will be there. It is going to be an incredible time with these stars walking around.
‘We have been instructed not to speak about our clients and we respect that. But we have heard they are really friendly guys and we cannot help being so happy that they are coming.’
Southgate has promised the WAGs they will be able to meet the players, but he has made it plain he will assess when and how that will be once Euro 2024 has kicked off – and they will be kept at a secure distance.
The decision on the WAGs’ base was informed by what happened in World Cup 2006 in and around the England camp in Baden Baden.
The proximity then of the party of 20 plus glamorous WAGs at the Brenners Park Hotel overshadowed the England team – as media and public alike were daily obsessed by the women shopping in high end fashion stores and swigging champagne in local bars.
At times then England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson gave his players freedom to join the women during the World Cup which saw the team disappointingly eliminated in the quarter finals against Portugal for the second tournament in a row.
Much criticism followed and the WAGS were blamed for taking the players’ attention away from the football.
FA insiders insist that lessons have been learned since 2006 – and consequently England will diplomatically keep the women at a distance, but offer them opportunities to meet with the football stars when considered appropriate – according to the fixture and training schedule.
FA staff will be alongside them, and they will be given assistance in moving around Germany during the tournament.
MailOnline can reveal the women and children and other family members are set to stay at the Dorint Hotel in Erfurt.
The hotel, which has 160 rooms, is a few minutes away from Major designer shops and has a spa and wellness centre which offers massage and yoga and there is a jogging route and fitness centre.
Restaurants are said to cater for every taste and cocktails flow in the hotel’s bars.
This is the Dorint Hotel in Erfurt where the England football players’ WAGs might stay
FA insiders insist that lessons have been learned since 2006 – and consequently England will diplomatically keep the women at a distance
MailOnline can reveal the women and children and other family members are set to stay at the Dorint Hotel in Erfurt
The hotel, which has 160 rooms, is a few minutes away from Major designer shops and has a spa and wellness centre which offers massage and yoga and there is a jogging route and fitness centre
This is the Dorint Hotel in Erfurt where the WAGs might stay
A source told us: ‘The FA know that they have to look after the wives, girlfriends and families as well, and they did that in Qatar at the last World Cup’
When asked about the tournament late last year – and how it would compare to 2006, Southgate said diplomatically: ‘We want their families to be able to go and enjoy the tournament as well. We normally welcome them in at various times. It changes the dynamic of the hotel, especially if the kids come in, and those elements are important for the players.’
But a source told us: ‘The FA know that they have to look after the wives, girlfriends and families as well, and they did that in Qatar at the last World Cup.
‘But this tournament is in Germany, which is so much nearer and a larger number of family members are expected to travel.
‘There is no way that Gareth will allow a repetition of what happened in Germany in 2006.
‘The focus then was as much on the women as well as the footballers. Everyone wants England to win this tournament and to do that they have to be allowed to focus on the matches and meet with their families when the time is right.
‘That will happen once England have secured a place in the next round after the initial three games. But Gareth is mindful that it will be good for the players as well to meet with their families too.’
He added: ‘It certainly helps that the WAGs this time out are generally lower profile – typified by Harry Kane’s wife Katie.’
Other WAGS and family likely to attend are Harry Maguire’s wife Fern – whose conversation with her husband after a match in Russia 2018 inspired a long-running meme – as well as Kyle Walker’s partner Annie Kilner, Phil Foden’s partner Rebecca Cooke and his party-loving mum Claire Rowlands.
In Qatar at the World Cup England stayed at the Al-Wakrah beach resort and families were bussed in to meet players at arranged times.
MailOnline has learned that when the England squad arrive in Blankenhain, around 170 miles south of the capital Berlin, they will see what they may think is a good omen: the town is widely daubed in graffiti reading ‘1966’.
But this is not a case of German football fans seeking to welcome their great rivals by reminding them of a final they famously lost. Instead it’s just down to the fact that the nearest football team.
FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt are based in the same town England’s WAGs will be in 20 miles away and are known as 1966 after the year they were founded.
Nevertheless, it’s hard to imagine players and fans who notice walls in the town near the hotel sprayed with ‘1966’ will not in some small way feel it’s a good omen.
MailOnline has learned that when the England squad arrive in Blankenhain, around 170 miles south of the capital Berlin, they will see what they may think is a good omen: the town is widely daubed in graffiti reading ‘1966’
General view of Blankenhain town
This is graffiti displaying 1966 in the village of Blankenhain
This is graffiti displaying 1966 in the village of Blankenhain
Yilmaz Yologlu who owns Alanya Grill wishes England luck during the Euros in the village of Blankenhain
Certainly Erfurt fans appear excited about welcoming internationally renowned players in contrast to the lower league fare they are used to with their 1966 local team.
Yilmaz Yologlu, 50, who runs the kebab shop Alanya Grill in Blankenhain said: ‘In 1966 my team was made and it was England’s lucky year too. I don’t mind if they have a good luck from it again at Euro 2024.
‘I hope England have success here. They won the World Cup nearly 60 years ago. That is a long time
‘But I understand how it feels for your team not to win. ‘Erfurt are 11th in the league in this region and have not won for five matches. Like the English, I feel sad too.’
Mehmet Mustapha, 36, who lives in Blankenhain and supports Erfurt and Manchester United, added: ‘I am too young to know about England in 1966.
‘But I am a big fan of Harry Maguire. I hope that Erfurt’s 1966 connection will bring him and England all the good fortunes in 2024.
‘When they see the ‘1966’ signs here, I hope it makes them play with courage and Blankenhain blessings. ‘
Fans are highly unlikely to seek out the remote England HQ and will stick to towns where the team will play.
If supporters do move into Blankenhain they will find little to do as the main street has one supermarket, a kebab shop and a pharmacy.
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