Is UEFA bluffing or very serious?

Not that I follow football, and certainly would lose any sleep over it, if it was banned totally, that would sort the problem once and for all.
The hooligans would have to find somewhere to riot then.
Maybe liven up a cricket match or two? :D

But joking aside, they were saying the Russian antagonists are specially trained, and take about 6 months training before hand.
Where they get that idea from, I've no idea.
 
Not that I follow football, and certainly would lose any sleep over it, if it was banned totally, that would sort the problem once and for all.
The hooligans would have to find somewhere to riot then.
Maybe liven up a cricket match or two? :D

But joking aside, they were saying the Russian antagonists are specially trained, and take about 6 months training before hand.
Where they get that idea from, I've no idea.
Looking at their Tattoo's I'd say prison ;)
 
No they don't go to games, they travel to pubs near the ground and cause hassle.

I am sure many season ticket is not purchased with a months wage, merely, paid for by a payday loan company or similar.

Why is it that every tournament English fans go abroad, there is trouble? Each time a small pocket of society pipe up with oooh it's not all of us (fairly obvious) yet the majority do cause trouble.

Thick people and alcohol is a bad mix.

Rubbish - trouble is not something that happens very often, and as I understand it we did very little here.

One of my sales guys was in France as he had a ticket for the Russia game - ok, it is just one persons account but this is what he told me:

On Friday they were with many other England fans in the fans park watching the Fra v Rom game - lots of good natured banter, cheering when Rom scored and all fine. Before the Eng match they were in various bars, including many families and kids, and no issues. At one stage around 20 French (he thought they were mainly Algerians) started confronting the English fans, throwing bottles and wanting a fight (which a few fans did go round the corner and indulge in). Later on, around 200+ Russians started running towards them, beating anyone at all - wearing gloves, weapons, balaclavas etc... bottles being thrown etc... while I think a couple did try to fight back pretty much everyone ran (no police around) but then another smaller group of Russians were coming in another direction so they needed to run again. Again, anyone too slow was beaten, he saw one guy getting his head properly stamped on and another glassed in the face. They ran and ran and ended up miles from the ground, a taxi driver refused to take them but a French family took the three I think it was nearer to the stadium. In the stadium near the end the Russians again attacked and the bloke behind him got punched in the head.

Barring the odd exception, no-one was looking for a fight and everyone pretty much ran as fast as they could. The police presence was a joke, and in the stadium my rep had to push a steward out the way who was blocking him running down the exit - had he not done that some to very nice Russians would have been very, very close. I am sick to death of people thinking england fans are hooligans - there is very little trouble at club matches (compare that to many in Europe) but when anything does kick off we always get the blame. The police have not handled this at all well and the english fans he was with mixing with other fans without any bother. There are obviously a very small number of idiots who probably did want a fight, but it all seems to be the Russians starting it with a few of the French wanting to have a bash too. I am sure some of our fans have not covered themselves in glory but to even dare threaten to ban us after all that is a joke.
 
but when anything does kick off we always get the blame.
I think its a case of give a dog a bad name TBH.
It wasn't so long ago ( OK a few years) that most English matches were marred by fights, and worse.
Although to be fair, over the years, the FA did a lot to make the games more family friendly.
 
....... the majority do cause trouble.

.

This is a ridiculous statement.
The troublemakers are a small minority, but the daily mail readers such as this instantly roll out the outrage generator.
 
Lots of photographs of the protagonists in the stadium. I wonder how many use Facebook and Instagram etc with selfies. Combine the first with the second and add facial recognition software.....
 
Fairly pointless to eject them from the tournament I'd have thought.
Those intent on causing trouble won't leave.
If anything, just start deporting Brits and Russians (from these areas) en masse.

Sorry, in advance for the rant but they are most certainly not Brits but English.

As a Welshman who is loving out first major tournament in more than 50 years, It's a completely different story in Bordeaux where the Slovaks and Welsh were singing and dancing with each other, before, during and after the match. That's what fans should be like.

It makes me so angry when the English fans are referred to as British when it's bad news but English when it's good.
 
Sorry, in advance for the rant but they are most certainly not Brits but English.

As a Welshman who is loving out first major tournament in more than 50 years, It's a completely different story in Bordeaux where the Slovaks and Welsh were singing and dancing with each other, before, during and after the match. That's what fans should be like.

It makes me so angry when the English fans are referred to as British when it's bad news but English when it's good.

I'm sorry too, for stating a fact, but English, Welsh... They are still British.
I'm certainly not apologising for using a factual term, especially as you have no way of knowing if those involved are English, Welsh or any other nationality.
 
Lots of photographs of the protagonists in the stadium. I wonder how many use Facebook and Instagram etc with selfies. Combine the first with the second and add facial recognition software.....
They have been doing that for years ;)
 
Sorry, in advance for the rant but they are most certainly not Brits but English.

As a Welshman who is loving out first major tournament in more than 50 years, It's a completely different story in Bordeaux where the Slovaks and Welsh were singing and dancing with each other, before, during and after the match. That's what fans should be like.

It makes me so angry when the English fans are referred to as British when it's bad news but English when it's good.

Bang on, but remember it's NEVER their fault. ;)
 
Rubbish - trouble is not something that happens very often, and as I understand it we did very little here.

One of my sales guys was in France as he had a ticket for the Russia game - ok, it is just one persons account but this is what he told me:

On Friday they were with many other England fans in the fans park watching the Fra v Rom game - lots of good natured banter, cheering when Rom scored and all fine. Before the Eng match they were in various bars, including many families and kids, and no issues. At one stage around 20 French (he thought they were mainly Algerians) started confronting the English fans, throwing bottles and wanting a fight (which a few fans did go round the corner and indulge in). Later on, around 200+ Russians started running towards them, beating anyone at all - wearing gloves, weapons, balaclavas etc... bottles being thrown etc... while I think a couple did try to fight back pretty much everyone ran (no police around) but then another smaller group of Russians were coming in another direction so they needed to run again. Again, anyone too slow was beaten, he saw one guy getting his head properly stamped on and another glassed in the face. They ran and ran and ended up miles from the ground, a taxi driver refused to take them but a French family took the three I think it was nearer to the stadium. In the stadium near the end the Russians again attacked and the bloke behind him got punched in the head.

Barring the odd exception, no-one was looking for a fight and everyone pretty much ran as fast as they could. The police presence was a joke, and in the stadium my rep had to push a steward out the way who was blocking him running down the exit - had he not done that some to very nice Russians would have been very, very close. I am sick to death of people thinking england fans are hooligans - there is very little trouble at club matches (compare that to many in Europe) but when anything does kick off we always get the blame. The police have not handled this at all well and the english fans he was with mixing with other fans without any bother. There are obviously a very small number of idiots who probably did want a fight, but it all seems to be the Russians starting it with a few of the French wanting to have a bash too. I am sure some of our fans have not covered themselves in glory but to even dare threaten to ban us after all that is a joke.

Hi Simon

I partly agree with what you have said. England fans get a bad press in comparison to other similar acts from fans of other countries, and from UEFA \ FIFA - there is no doubt about that.

I went to every England game home and away for 3-4 years at the start of the century, as I mentioned earlier, in a working capacity, so got a different perspective.

Many people are like your friend you mention, just want to go to the match, but also visit somewhere new and spent a few days relaxing in a nice place, meeting people. The majority are certainly like this, and certainly the majority of people with tickets as membership is strictly controlled now and ticket allocation. I'm not sure what s done now, but when I was there, every person need police clearance to be accepted as a member.

That said there were always a lot of people who went without tickets and tried to charge entrances, sometimes it worked, mostly not. What was more prevalent was the 'just having a laugh brigade who whilst not necessarily violent were certainly intimidating to locals and other fans. There was a clear disconnect between some fans thinking they were not casing any trouble and others thinking they were being a nuisance at best.

What was very noticeable was how good the UK police is at dealing with hooligans compared to many \ most other countries. What we see now in France I very much doubt would happen in the UK if we were hosting the tournament.

The problem is it's not hard to find large group of English having 'giving it large; drunk and or worse, and those pictures sell papers and feed the stereotype. Unfortunately due to past actions, England fans are more of a target for both the police and opposition fans looking to make their mark. As the police has done such a good job here restricting the ability for hooligans to travel, we now end up with scenarios we have seen where for example the russian 'ultras' go looking for a fight with basically anyone and there isn't really anyone English who wants to fight them really (I'm not saying that's a problem, it is a good thing of course but it exposes more 'innocent fans')- they are cowardly at best and just picking on anyone and it would appear mostly people who have no interest in fighting, it's well known how bad they are so I'm surprised more has not been done to combat it. So in this instance the papers should really be reporting russian hooligans attack families, innocent bystanders etc. Doesn't help when you have a russian MP congratulating them *sigh*.

What I've read are similar accounts to your friend - pretty scary stuff and France really need to sort out their policing. That said it would be nice if these idiots could find it within their limited brain capacity to not act like such tools.

Anyway, I hope everyone stays safe, it sounds horrific.
 
Sorry, in advance for the rant but they are most certainly not Brits but English.

It makes me so angry when the English fans are referred to as British when it's bad news but English when it's good.

I'm sorry too, for stating a fact, but English, Welsh... They are still British.
I'm certainly not apologising for using a factual term, especially as you have no way of knowing if those involved are English, Welsh or any other nationality.

Sorry Viv1969, but I have to accept Shadow's point.

If an English man, a Welsh man, and a Scottish man, got together and started throwing bottles at people. We can say the British did it.

But if an English man, another English man, and yet a third English man got together and threw bottles at people. While technically correct to say the British did it, it is unfair to the Welsh and Scottish because anyone reading "the British did it" will assume a Welsh and a Scottish was involved, therefore it makes more sense to say "the English did it" if it was found out that the majority or all of those people throwing bottles are from England.
 
Sorry, in advance for the rant but they are most certainly not Brits but English.

As a Welshman who is loving out first major tournament in more than 50 years, It's a completely different story in Bordeaux where the Slovaks and Welsh were singing and dancing with each other, before, during and after the match. That's what fans should be like.

It makes me so angry when the English fans are referred to as British when it's bad news but English when it's good.

Well maybe, I can't comment on Wales fans at tournaments, but I think you'll find a different experience with Russian or Polish fans.

As someone who has seen a fair few matches when my team has played Cardiff, those Welsh Cardiff fans are some of the worst around, I remember it being like a war zone at Loftus Road a few years ago - I accept it's not the same, but I suspect a lot of those fans have travelled.

That said, I hope you have a good time and it continues as you say, the way it should be.
 
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But wasn't English fans already rioting for a couple of days before the England v Russia match, and it was on the day of the match that they were set upon?

Not from what I heard. They were being rowdy (as most football fans are - by singing stupid songs mostly) and were attacked by French locals, armed with lumps of wood etc. But it's always our fault...... When we leave the EU, maybe they won't let us play in their tournament.....
 
Supporters blaming the police, brilliant, that's like Stevie Wonder blaming specsavers ;)

Football fans are idiots, but it's a game for the lower classes, add stupidity with alcohol and the result is there for all to see.

Currently I am in Belgium and the idiot English fans here are an embarrassment.

Such a simple minded view.

Just because somebody is a football fan does not mean they are a hooligan, incite violence or get drunk on match days. I'm a season ticket holder at Arsenal, I rarely drink as I tend to drive to the ground, I've never seen any violence (not even with Spurs fans) and there is the odd bit of singing in the street, but that's about it.

Maybe you should actually go to a game and experience it for yourself.
 
Not from what I heard. They were being rowdy (as most football fans are - by singing stupid songs mostly) and were attacked by French locals, armed with lumps of wood etc. But it's always our fault...... When we leave the EU, maybe they won't let us play in their tournament.....

When we leave the EU, we can still play in the Euro Cup because the UEFA Euro Cup have nothing to do with the EU.
 
When we leave the EU, we can still play in the Euro Cup because the UEFA Euro Cup have nothing to do with the EU.

I wasn't actually being serious, just jumping of the current "scare" campaign...
 
I've personally never seen the point in watching 22 millionaires chasing a bag of wind around a pitch for 90 minutes !
Certainly not something worth fighting over.
:exit:
 
Well maybe, I can't comment on Wales fans at tournaments, but I think you'll find a different experience with Russian or Polish fans.

As someone who has seen a fair few matches when my team has played Cardiff, those Welsh Cardiff fans are some of the worst around, I remember it being like a war zone at Loftus Road a few years ago - I accept it's not the same, but I suspect a lot of those fans have travelled.

That said, I hope you have a good time and it continues as you say, the way it should be.
As someone who goes to a few games, I rarely see (or hear of) any trouble, but the list of visiting teams likely to cause trouble definitely include Cardiff.

For balance, there's a few Scottish teams with a bad reputation too, along with a few English

I recently went to Wembley for the league 1 playoff final. There was a carnival atmosphere travelling with the Barnsley fans, on the train with families going to London for a day out, no one was offended and the kids were laughing at the funny songs. (Of course if we'd travelled from Oxfordshire I'm sure someone would have complained at the colourful language). My brother in law travelled on the train with some Milwall fans who were fighting amongst themselves on the train and at the station.

Unsurprisingly, there was a small amount of trouble in the ground when a group of Milwall fans broke through the barrier to attack Barnsley fans.
 
I wasn't actually being serious, just jumping of the current "scare" campaign...

A friend of mine did really asked me "If the UK vote to leave the EU, do that mean we won't be in the Euro Cup anymore?"

I had to explain that no, the UEFA have nothing to do with the EU. I also had to explain that Russia, Switzerland and one or two other nations in the Euro 2016, are actually not members of the EU, yet they're in the Euro Cup.

Well, it's cool and fun if you mention that, but you never know, there may be a few people around who actually thinks this way. :-)
 
I can't help but raise an eye brow regarding the reaction from a Russian MP

"I don't see anything terrible about fans fighting. Quite the opposite, the guys did well. Keep it up!" Igor Lebedev, a Russian Football Union (RFU) official and nationalist MP
 
Maybe this Igor Lebedev lives in the Opposite World, he's encouraging and supporting the Russia National football squad to lose the Euro Cup, whereabouts the rest of us are doing it the right way, encouraging and supporting for our teams to win! :-)
 
Everyone looking forward to the 2018 World Cup in ..... Russia?
 
I can't comprehend 'suspended disqualification '

Russia have been handed a suspended disqualification.

Interesting to note as more details emerge, that the tabloids appear to have fallen into lazy journo mode, rather than reporting the story with some integrity.
 
I can't comprehend 'suspended disqualification '
I think it is like a yellow card for the tournament. So one more and out.
 
So, UEFA not bluffing, but not really serious either.
 
No I think it is a sensible response to give them a chance and not spoil it for the hundreds of thousands of good fans.
 
I did read the report later.
Unfortunately only covers behaviour inside the stadia.
Oh I didn't read that part. Shame.

Lille is going to be an interesting 'battle ground' unfortunately. I hope all parties behave and that it doesn't attract more from abroad just to come and have a fight. I can dream can't I?
 
It seems that there's plenty of Neanderthals who've travelled for the euro fight contest where there's an occasional outbreak of football.

Hopefully EUFA dishing out serious threats might change enough minds.
 
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