Once the feelings of shame and disgust have subsided (England and Russia fans clash before and after match, 12 June), one is left with a melancholy sense of the aptness of this dust-up. Here are two countries, each on the fringes of a continent towards which they are, historically, at best ambivalent. Each is blighted by a seemingly ineradicable strain of thuggish xenophobia. And each is retarded by an infantile yearning for lost world power status. If we were stupid enough to leave the EU and find ourselves obliged to try and stitch up some trade deal with Putin’s Russia, it would be about what we deserve.
Emeritus Professor Glyn Turton
Shipley, West Yorkshire
• So Uefa is going to charge the Russian FA over the violence in the stadium at Marseille on Saturday. As the next World Cup will be in Russia in 2018 and Gazprom is one of Uefa/Fifa’s biggest sponsors, what sanctions will be applied?
Ged Meheran
Swindon, Wiltshire
• Bad behaviour is a trait we English are consistently good at exporting. When I travel abroad (as it happens, mainly to France), social skills are lacking among most age groups – the dreaded bad experience in flight or ferry is commonplace. So I’m not surprised problems have surfaced at these games. I am ashamed of the English abroad, in particular the dim–witted thugs that represent our country as “fans” at Euro 2016.
Michael Reekie
Shrewsbury
• In England prophets of doom advocate England leaving Europe at the same time as so-called remain scaremongers want England to stay in it. In France there are rowdy England football fans chanting about leaving Europe, while European football’s governing body Uefa threatens to throw England out, but would prefer them to stay. Simultaneously, the England football team would like to stay in Europe but might soon be forced to leave. Europe – funny old game.
Toby Wood
Peterborough, Cambridgeshire
• Given that “loads of people were hurt by glass bottles smashed on their heads” in Marseille, why have relevant Euro 2016 venues – those entertaining the most predictably troublesome fans – not been made glass-free zones?
Robin Gill
Oxford
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