Scenes of violence between Russian and English supporters on the streets of Marseille and Lille and at European Championship games this week has again exposed an ugly side to the beautiful game.
Statistics on the number of disciplinary actions taken again teams, countries and players by Uefa show an increase in recent years. The association issued 33 actions in 2013, increasing to 54 in 2015 – a 64% increase.
Fans are typically the cause of trouble, accounting for 32 of the 54 actions taken last year. The most common disciplinary action involving supporters was for discriminatory or racist chants, with 11 such decisions taken last year.
The figures, taken from reported case law decisions and appeals by Uefa, only account for incidents occurring inside stadiums. What is not possible to gauge is whether the increase indicates that behaviour at matches has deteriorated, or that Uefa has become more active in issuing fines against bad behaviour.
When summarised by country, including both national and domestic football matches, Poland and Turkey had the most disciplinary actions between 2013 and 2015.
But when broadened to include actions taken against players and teams, Turkey had the most decisions overall, at 14, followed by Russia with 10, in the three-year period covered.
Russia was this week handed a suspended disqualification and a fine of €150,000 (£118,000) by Uefa after violence broke out among its fans at the Stade Vélodrome in France during its UEFA Euro 2016 first-round match with England.
