UEFA had already warned both the Russian and English footballassociations their teams could be disqualified from the tournament if there was further violence outside stadiums.
Advertisement
The Russian football union condemned the violent clashes in the French port city Marseille when England and Russia met in a UEFA Euro 2016 match.
However, after three nights of violent clashes in Marseilles between French police, local fans and Russian and English supporters, UEFA will not accept a repeat and issued a heavily worded statement on Sunday afternoon.
It added: “This decision only relates to the incidents which occurredinside the stadium and are therefore under the jurisdiction of theUEFA Disciplinary Bodies”.
England supporters have been travelling north ahead of Thursday’s Group B game with Lens, and a large number are staying in nearby Lille, which hosts tomorrow’s game between Russian Federation and Slovakia.
Altercations erupted between Russian and English fans ahead of the June 11 group stage match.
But Football Association chair Greg Dyke wrote to UEFA to argue that while “a minority” of English fans were responsible for violence in Marseille, they were not to blame for the fighting at the end of the match.
Among the incidents at Euro 2012, stadium security staff in Wroclaw, Poland, were assaulted by Russian fans at the team’s opening 4-1 victory over the Czech Republic.
The hope at Euro 2016 was that the soccer would be the main talking point.
He said normal macho Russian men were a surprise to French police, who were more used to dealing with gay parades.
Russia, which was also charged over fan racism and fireworks being set off during the game, has been fined 150,000 euros ($169,000) by UEFA.
Shprygin claimed that he and 28 other representatives of fan groups had been held near Cannes and put on a bus.
British police coordinator Mark Roberts said the Russian troublemakers in Marseille were wearing mouthguards, martial arts gloves and carrying knives.
Advertisement
Russian football official Igor Lebedev praised the fans for defending “the honor of their country” on Monday, but Russian president Vladimir Putin has urged fans to refrain from violence through the remainder of the tournament.
