European football’s governing body warned the English and Russian football associations yesterday their teams could be disqualified from Euro 2016 if there was more of the fan violence that has injured several dozen people.
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UEFA had already opened disciplinary proceedings against Russian Federation over the behaviour of their supporters at the Stade Velodrome in Marseille on Saturday night.
She added: “UK police will be assisting the French with their post-incident investigations and supporting them to gather evidence, including evidence against any England fans involved in the disorder”.
“There is definitely English fans that are just there for football, but every single tournament there seems to be just.it might be a minority but it seems like a majority of England fans just want to wreck the place and not actually enjoy the football”, he said.
Uefa said that it will also investigate allegations of racist behaviour, the throwing of missiles and fireworks.
“This kind of behaviour is totally unacceptable and has no place in football”.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve condemned the violence as “unacceptable” as he revealed plans to severely limit the sale of alcohol during the tournament.
A ministry spokesman said Cazeneuve was not calling for Russian Federation and England to be punished, but rather supporting UEFA’s stance.
Russia’s next game is in Lille, northern France, on Wednesday against Slovakia.
Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said his country’s fans “behaved improperly” and predicted UEFA would impose a fine this week. Three times champion Germany beat Ukraine 2-0.
“We have offered to send further United Kingdom police to France ahead of the next England game to support the security operation around the match in Lens”.
The violence in the stadium was limited compared to the scenes before the match when hundreds of fans pelted each other with cafe chairs and bottles. “They haven’t even played a game and they were tearing up Marseille”.
France’s government rallied behind the police amid questions over tactics and security inside the stadiums.
There were issues with segregation of fans, Uefa admitted, promising security would be “strengthened”.
The tournament is being played under a state of emergency after Islamist militants attacked Paris in November previous year, killing 130 people.
The Interior Ministry said in a statement that 116 people had been arrested since Friday in incidents connected to the tournament, with 63 of them still being held in prison and the rest released.
The head of Britain’s Euro 2016 policing operation on Sunday said Russian football fans attacked English fans, wearing gum shields, martial arts gloves and carrying knives.
“Any misdemeanours that you saw involving English supporters in Marseille paled into insignificance when you saw the organised brutality from some of the Russian hooligan groups”.
It has threatened to ban both teams if there is further fan violence.
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The British Government has said it was “deeply concerned” by the violence, and has offered to send more police to France.
