“You are no beauty”, sings Herbert Grönemeyer about his home town Bochum. But the English soccer fans have awarded neighbouring Gelsenkirchen the prize for ugliness. Ever since a supporter of the Three Lions team called the three-time Euro host a “shithole” on the news platform X (formerly Twitter), a dispute has been raging online as to why such a supposedly dreary and run-down city is one of Germany’s calling cards at the Euro 2024. After all, the England fan’s post was shared more than three million times. And London-based Sky sports reporter Kaveh Solhekol gave a sophisticated explanation for the city’s decline. “We’re in the north-west of Germany, where the steel and mining industry used to be dominant. That’s gone now and there’s not really much left.” Addressing the English fans, he said that there was “not much to do here”. And the landlords wouldn’t even accept British credit cards. At least the people are nice and the beer is good. He shares this assessment with many other English football supporters.