Cricket-Match-Special ... A forum for discussion

BBC reporter says there was heavy bottling of French police by English visitors, before they retaliated with tear gas.

Look at Orlando. Imagine if Europe had the same kind of gun culture as the US.

I heard an interesting stat on the radio this morning that may or may not be true and to be considered in light of the game on Thursday, is that the most arrests of England fans over the years abroad are from Cardiff!

Arthur Crabtree wrote:BBC reporter says there was heavy bottling of French police by English visitors, before they retaliated with tear gas.

In fairness to English fans, it does seem the police lost control on Thursday when local "youths" initiate trouble and the police waded into bars and threw tear gas in, when it was the problem outside the bars that was the issue. You then get a load of fans on tenderhooks and have them drinking in the sun with the feeling they are now the victims.Its easy to say police tactics where proportional as the scale of violence has escalated, but then I am of the opinion that heavy handed police tactics often serves to radicalize peaceful fans caught in the middle.

Either way, the police and authorities have a massive list of problems to answer. In England, police force matches that have potential flashpoints to be played in the early afternoon to stop wanton drinking. If Leeds v MK Dons is deemed to have to start at 1200 hours for this reason, then two teams with hooligan pasts and with a long list of political problems in their united history should.

Its incredible that even after two days problems, people were still allowed to drink in bars in the same areas from the morning. There should have been a no-alcohol policy initiated for match day. Probably the best example of the lack of preparation can be seen in the deployment of the water cannon. Apparently the authorities had several at their disposals, but only took it to the port area as afternoon turned into evening on Saturday, and widespread issues had already happened for two days. Surely after two days of problems, that should have been ready and waiting on Saturday? It seems the police have acted poorly.

The other major issue is how Russian fans so easily breached the gap between fans yesterday. It seems a thin line of defenseless stewards were segregating fans, a line that was completely outnumbered and broke with minimal effort. At this point there was no crowd control measures in place as a back up. Russian fans were able to simply walk up to English fans and punch/kick them. No police anywhere, no riot control, nothing.

Thousands could have been crushed or badly injured. Had there been more than a minority of Russian fans wanting to get involved, we could have had major issues last night. The French have a lot to answer for. No point sending pictures of all the anti-terrorism measures to the world to say you have everything under control when in the stadium a riot kicks off and there was no one to control it.

On the last day of the Premier League season a bomb threat occurred at Old Trafford. The stadium was exited in complete calm, the authorities had everything under control, and people were safely left to go home. Had something even as minor as that occurred last night, what kind of melee would have ensued?

UEFA threaten expulsions for Russia and England if there is any further fan violence.

That's not going to happen.

Aidan11 wrote:UEFA threaten expulsions for Russia and England if there is any further fan violence.

That's not going to happen.

That's strange, as UEFA have not charged the English fans with anything? They have even said what happened outside the ground has nothing to do with them. Russia got 3 warnings from the last European cup, one for each game they played, and then the next game they play they have been warned again(Last night). Yet England has had no warning from UEFA and now face the risk of explosion from the tournament.

I really like the logic of UEFA there.

yuppie wrote:

Aidan11 wrote:UEFA threaten expulsions for Russia and England if there is any further fan violence.

That's not going to happen.

That's strange, as UEFA have not charged the English fans with anything? They have even said what happened outside the ground has nothing to do with them. Russia got 3 warnings from the last European cup, one for each game they played, and then the next game they play they have been warned again(Last night). Yet England has had no warning from UEFA and now face the risk of explosion from the tournament.

I really like the logic of UEFA there.

'Uefa has threatened to disqualify England and Russia from Euro 2016 if there is any further violence by fans. It has begun disciplinary proceedings against Russia - but not England - after "totally unacceptable" scenes at Saturday's England-Russia game.'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-36510550

UEFA have also stated: “We would also like to publicly voice our support for the work of the French Authorities and security forces for their efforts to deliver a safe and secure tournament in challenging circumstances.”

Like how they keep the security up between the Russian supporters and the English supporters during the game? How they reacted to the Russian charging of the England fans?

I feel sorry for them, but they are accountable for what happened in the stadium last night.

yuppie wrote:

Aidan11 wrote:UEFA threaten expulsions for Russia and England if there is any further fan violence.

That's not going to happen.

That's strange, as UEFA have not charged the English fans with anything? They have even said what happened outside the ground has nothing to do with them. Russia got 3 warnings from the last European cup, one for each game they played, and then the next game they play they have been warned again(Last night). Yet England has had no warning from UEFA and now face the risk of explosion from the tournament.

I really like the logic of UEFA there.

They are nearly in the same league as FIFA, run by a bunch of clueless idiots.

People worrying about trouble in Russia at the World Cup in two years, but who in their right mind would mess with the Russian authorities?!

There's also been violence between Germany and Ukraine fans. 2 injured.

There'll be no teams left at this rate!

That'll be our fault as well.

Aidan11 wrote:That'll be our fault as well.

Too right, we set a bad example!

England get banned from participating in European competition and the Full Members Cup is reborn!

In other news, some footage now emerging of English fans being attacked well away from the main source of trouble at the port by a group of Marseille ultras while having a quiet drink. And despite all the media coverage about Russians and English, it seems last night a large group of Nice Ultras attacked a friendly gathering of Northern Irish and Polish fans who fought back together. One is reported dead after falling from the promenade and onto the beach, but I believe its unrelated.

Im just wondering when UEFA are going to threaten to kick out France. It seems there is a constant here, and that is French local groups starting trouble.

sussexpob wrote:In other news, some footage now emerging of English fans being attacked well away from the main source of trouble at the port by a group of Marseille ultras while having a quiet drink. And despite all the media coverage about Russians and English, it seems last night a large group of Nice Ultras attacked a friendly gathering of Northern Irish and Polish fans who fought back together. One is reported dead after falling from the promenade and onto the beach, but I believe its unrelated.

Im just wondering when UEFA are going to threaten to kick out France. It seems there is a constant here, and that is French local groups starting trouble.

Doesn't Marseille consider itself not part of France, so i guess the locals would do anything to discredit the tournament.