“If there are things I can’t control then I don’t think too much about them but it’s a pity because it’s a great competition”, he said of the crowd trouble.
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The UEFA also issued a suspended disqualification for the Russian team, which means that the national squad would be disqualified from the major European football tournament in case of the recurrent instance of Russian fans misbehavior.
Speaking in a press conference on Tuesday ahead of their game against Slovakia on Wednesday in Lille, Russian striker Artem Dzyuba was defiant as he was asked about the trouble in Marseille.
“Our boys defended the honour of our country and did not allow the English to defile our homeland in any way”.
They will tell the fans there is a “categorical intolerance of all types of violations”.
Though England fans were at the center of the first skirmishes, the violence levels increased when Russian fans arrived.
Russia’s sports minister, Vitaly Mutko, appeared to acknowledge today the praise from home might be getting out of hand.
Masked Russia supporters charged at England fans, punching and kicking them, after the final whistle of the 1-1 Group B draw in Marseille on Saturday.
European football’s governing body UEFA has already warned both England and Russian Federation that any repeat of the mayhem in Marseille could result in them being thrown out of the competition, and Russian Federation faces three charges for crowd trouble at the Stade Velodrome.
UEFA can punish soccer bodies only for the actions of their ticketed fans in and around stadiums.
Assistant Chief Constable Mark Roberts, the National Police Chiefs’ Council Lead for Football Policing, said: “We are very concerned about violent behaviour in France over the weekend. I don’t know if we can talk about luck for Wales, but it was above all a balanced encounter”.
Russia’s coach Leonid Slutsky also criticised the “unethical” behaviour of England fans and said it was unfair to blame only the Russians.
Russians supporters complained of what they called English “provocations” including rude songs about Russian tennis player Maria Sharapova, suspended after testing positive for a banned substance, and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
With that in mind the government has offered to send additional British police to help their French counterparts.
Lebedev said of the Fifa council member: “We ought to thank him for not being indifferent to football, and for the fact that he doesn’t just get involved in the sporting side but also gives a lot of attention to work with the supporters”.
“We are very sorry for those English people who have been injured and are now in hospital”.
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Scenes of rival fans wielding metal bars and hurling beer bottles in street clashes in Marseille, as well as incidents in Nice, Lille and Paris, have turned attention away from events on the pitch.
