The appeal by both Roy Hodgson and Wayne Rooney asking for England fans to behave this week at the England v Wales game seemed very odd but was probably very necessary. From all accounts, the disorder in the stadium in Marseille on Sunday night was solely down to Russian fans, well-organised, highly dangerous hooligans. No one is seriously suggesting that every single England fan has been an angel. There has been sporadic trouble, involving a minority of English fans, and the usual chanting of unpleasant ditties like 10 German Bombers, Fuck Off Europe and No Surrender to the IRA, but nothing comes close to the ultra violent Russians. After saying that they had no jurisdiction with incidents outside the stadium, UEFA promptly announced that if there was further trouble Russia and England would be expelled from the tournament.
That seems to me to be a significant change in UEFA’s position, for one minute they are saying they can’t do anything about what happens outside the stadium and the next they say they can. England’s further participation in the tournament could be in real jeopardy is anything happens at all this week. This seems very unfair.
I find myself dreading what might happen this week. On Thursday, we play Wales in Lens, whilst the night before Russia play Slovakia in Lilles, which is 24 miles away. Lens will be ‘dry’ on the night but at first England fans were advised to head to Lilles, which wasn’t. The England/Wales relationship can be testy at times, to say the least. Not long ago, I attended a match in Cardiff between Wales and Italy which the home team won. But the fans were every bit as keen to see England lose the game they were playing and when it turned out England were losing, the Millennium Stadium was rocking. That’s rivalry, I suppose, and I just hope something like 100,000 England and Wales fans can mingle together peacefully before, during and after the game. It’s Lilles that worries me more.
The Russian ultras have not gone away. The act with military precision, some of them, it appears, are armed. Not one of them was arrested in Marseille. My fear is that if England supporters turn up for a night on the beer in Lilles on Wednesday, things might kick off and if things kick off people will be injured, people may be killed and both countries could be kicked out of the tournament. There would be no time for a thorough, considered inquiry to investigate what had happened and to whom blame should be apportioned. UEFA, having now issued the threat, would surely see it through purely on the basis of raw TV footage alone.
And who would suffer most? The players, obviously, but mainly the fans, the vast majority of people who have gone to France for the holiday of a lifetime. A major tournament in a foreign land, cheering on your team. As the Football Supporters Federation rightly pointed out, expulsion would hurt the very people who are needed in future to try and ensure this sort of thing never happens again. It is the same old story of penalising the majority for the actions of the few.
This isn’t Belgium in 1998 where no one could seriously suggest England fans were blameless. For one thing, many of the real hooligans aren’t allowed to leave the country when England are playing abroad. It’s more low key, confined to isolated punch ups and all day drinking and singing dubious songs. If we can’t win a major trophy at football, we can certainly drink the town dry.
A hint of trouble on Wednesday or Thursday and we could be in hot water. Serious disorder and the dream of perhaps getting out of the group will be gone, at least until the next World Cup. In Russia.
We’ve had a long, impassioned debate about who was in the right and who was in the wrong in Marseille, but now let’s look forward. All of us football fans surely do not want to see our team kicked out of the tournament in response to crowd trouble. It’s bad enough getting kicked out when we play someone genuinely good. That’s why Hodgson and Rooney were right to say what they did. It might not seem fair but it certainly won’t be fair if a few idiots cause us to be sent home this week.
