WHOLE LOTTA’ TROUBLE
A promising England performance against Russia on Saturday suggested that dreams of reaching the last four might not be unrealistic. Sixteen hours later, Uefa threatened to remove them from the competition if their fans cause any more trouble in France. The 1-1 draw in Marseille was overshadowed by violence at the end, when Russian supporters charged into the England section. There was also trouble by the old port before the game, with England fans clashing with police for the third consecutive day. Russian nutters, English morons, Marseille ultras and Uefa’s scheduling team: as the Fiver knows all too well from that ill-fated stag weekend in Skegness, four wrongs rarely make a right.
“The Uefa Executive Committee would like to express its disgust at the violent clashes which occurred in the city of Marseille,” said a statement, as Uefa received an unprecedented delivery of industrial hand soap. “Such unacceptable behaviour by so-called supporters of the national teams of England and Russia has no place in football, a sport we must protect and defend.
“The Uefa Executive Committee has warned both football associations that – irrespective of any decisions taken by the independent disciplinary bodies relating to incidents inside the stadium – it will not hesitate to impose additional sanctions on the Football Association and the Russian Football Union, including the potential disqualification of their respective teams from the tournament, should such violence occur again.”
Given Uefa’s traditional lack of moxie, that could amount to an unwise game of Call My Bluff. Russia’s next match, against Slovakia on Wednesday, is in Lille – 24 miles from Lens, where England play Wales the following day. Wayne Rooney and Roy Hodgson have asked supporters to behave, an endearing and almost certainly futile gesture. The French interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, wants a complete booze ban. “I have asked for all necessary measures to be taken to prohibit the sale, consumption and transport of alcoholic drinks in sensitive areas on match days and the day before, and on days when fan zones are open.”
The problem with this is that, according to many witnesses, most of the Russian fans were entirely sober. And imaginary data shows that the average Russian hooligan can drink four litres of paint stripper and still be under the drink-driving limit. “Respect for Russian Hooligans,” said @russian_ultras on Twitter yesterday. “Real fighters not fat [effin’] drinker of Guiness (sic).”
“England has had its problems with hooligans in the past,” said Mark Roberts, the head of Britain’s Euro 2016 policing operation. “But the Russians are entirely different – they are like nothing we have seen before. They are highly organised and determined to carry out sustained violent attacks at a level of aggression I have not encountered in the past 10 years. Our spotters in Marseille saw them putting in gum shields and putting on martial arts gloves and bandanas before attacking England fans in the port. We know some were carrying knives because one England fan was stabbed. They wore a kind of uniform – all in black t-shirts and clothing and most carried bum bags, possibly to conceal weapons.”
Whatever happens, football will surely learn a few lessons in policing and planning before the next major tournament, the 2018 World Cup. Where’s that being held again?
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QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I don’t see anything wrong with the fans fighting. Quite the opposite, well done lads, keep it up!” – Igor Lebedev, an MP who sits on the executive committee of the Russian football union, gives his interesting take on the trouble in Marseille.
FIVER LETTERS
“Like many people, I’ve been enjoying BBC4 drama The Disappearance – it’s set in my favourite French city and part of the fun has been spotting familiar places in the establishing shots. I was hoping to be able to a ‘… and Léa Morel isn’t the only person to go missing in Lyon’ reference, but looking into it, England won’t play at Parc L’OL unless they win the group and make it to the semi-final. If they do this, I feel it would be rather churlish to make such a facile remark. I’ve got a ‘there was nothing to laugh about for England fans’ line instead” – Ed Taylor.
“I was a tad disappointed that the link included in Friday’s Quote of the Day story about Euro 2016 mascot Super Victor sharing its name with a popular bongo pleasure stick led to the Big Paper story, rather than revealing any detail about the, er, device itself. Inevitably a Google image search ensued, with this startling result on the well-named Flowtech Induction website. (SFW) PS. So the name Super Victor was decided by public vote, eh? Ultimately a rather more successful guerilla naming campaign than Boaty McBoatface, n’est-ce pas?” – Steve Allen.
“Early cinqers? Well, cinq you very much! “ – Mike Edwards (and no others).
• Send your letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. And if you’ve nothing better to do you can also tweet The Fiver. Today’s winner of our prizeless letter o’the day is … Ed Taylor.
RECOMMENDED LISTENING
It’s Euro 2016 Football Daily! The podders assess the impressive first outings for Croatia and Germany. Plus, Poland outclass Norn Ireland, and a look ahead to today’s action.
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BITS AND BOBS
A Northern Ireland fan has died after falling on the seafront in Nice.
Brazil have been sent tumbling out of the Copa América after being beaten 1-0 by Peru, a team who hadn’t previously beaten them in about 467 years.
Mr Roy has donned his St George face paint and roared at his squad to show Gareth Bale that they can be very bit as passionate as Wales. “I don’t have any doubts personally about our patriotism and our desire and that’s the most important thing,” he said, not quite roaring in fact.
Footballer John Arne Riise is now former footballer John Arne Riise after the left-back decided to hang up his boots. “My inner goal was to play football at the Norwegian top level until I was 40. But that is not to be. It stops here,” he sighed.
And Sevilla have revealed that they quite like the cut of Jorge Sampaoli’s jib after manager Unai Emery paid £1.6m to walk himself unimpeded through the door marked Do One.
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STILL WANT MORE?
Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini admits to Paolo Bandini that he can get a little narky on the pitch but says he’s cool, calm and collected away from it.
Marcel Desailly has been chatting away about all things Chelsea, helicopters, and France’s Euro 2000.
Owen Gibson asks the big question: who exactly is going to punish Uefa for Satuday’s bother in Marseille? Yup, that’s silence right there.
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