The French authorities began cracking down on the fan violence that has blighted Euro 2016 thus far. Yesterday, they confirmed that the sale and consumption of alcohol would be prohibited near tournament venues, and today French police made the first round of arrests in response to the violent clashes between Russian and English fans.
The Mirror are today reporting that French police have made 21 arrests: all of whom are English, including a 16-year-old charged with throwing glass bottles. Despite the lack of Russian arrests, France's chief prosecutor told assembled press that he believed there were 150 Russian hooligans responsible for some of the violence.
There were 150 Russian supporters who in reality were hooligans.
These people were well prepared for ultra-rapid, ultra-violent action. These are extremely well trained people.
Much of the violence has been attributed to organised groups of Russian hooligans who flew to Switzerland, renting cars to allow ease of access into France. In addition to the clashes on the streets of Marseille, Russian fans also charged at English fans in the Stade Velodrome, as segregation was not properly enforced by UEFA.
While the clashes were ongoing, the Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko did little to deter the Russian supporters intent on fighting with English fans:
Russia sports minister Vitaly Mutko: a man who eats 5 breakfasts a day at $46.39 each; love hooligans, dopers & lies pic.twitter.com/vWVszpir6h
— Nick Harris (@sportingintel) June 12, 2016
These actions are in contrast to his comments that UEFA had "done the right thing" in opening a case against the Russian football federation.
Another Russian political figure making absurd comments is MP Igor Lebedev, who has made scarcely believable comments on his own twitter account, tweeting "90% of the football fans go to fight, and that is normal. Our guys stood for our country".
35 people have been injured in the fighting, most of whom are English. One of those fans is England fan Andrew Bache, who has been left in a coma having been attacked with an iron bar by Russian thugs. He has suffered a brain injury, the full effects of which cannot be deduced until he is taken out of an induced coma.
Violence at Euro 2016 has taken away from what should be a celebration of all that is good about football. We can only hope that the scenes of Marseille are not repeated.
