Roy Hodgson and Wayne Rooney have urged England supporters to stay out of the kind of trouble witnessed before and after the match with Russia in Marseille after Uefa threatened to throw both sides out of the competition.
“As the England manager I am obviously now very concerned about the threat that is hanging over us and the sanction that could possibly be imposed upon the England team,” said Hodgson, in a video shared by the Football Association on Twitter. “We worked very hard to get here and we want to stay in the competition.
“I’m appealing therefore to all of our fans, and we appreciated your support at the matches of course, but I’m appealing to you to stay out of trouble to try and make certain these threats that are being issued are never carried out and we will be able to do the best we can to stay in the competition.”
England fans were involved in fights with Russian supporters in Marseille before the opening Group B match, while after the game Russia fans attacked England fans in the ground for which they have been separately charged by Uefa.
The FA has appealed to England supporters to be “responsible and respectful” after being warned by Uefa that England risk being kicked out of the tournament and while the French prosecutor, Brice Robin, has acknowledged that approximately 150 Russian hooligans were behind much of the trouble, England supporters were also culpable.
🎥 A message to #ThreeLions fans from #ENG manager Roy Hodgson and captain @WayneRooney #TogetherForEngland https://t.co/dXRSZdMUXk
— England (@England) June 13, 2016
England face Wales in Lens on Thursday and supporters without tickets had been urged to travel to nearby Lille instead, despite the fact Russia face Slovakia there on Wednesday.
Rooney said: “I’d like to thank the fans for the support against Russia. Now we have a big game coming up against Wales and I’d like to ask the fans: ‘Please, if you don’t have a ticket, don’t travel. And for fans with tickets: ‘Be safe, be sensible and continue with your great support for the players.’”
