French Prime Minister Manuel Valls yesterday said some soccer fans would be deported from France after violent clashes marred the start of Euro 2016, while a group of Russian fans was detained near Cannes on the French Riviera.
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.
“People will be deported after they have been sentenced, as there are people who cannot remain, because they are not wanted on our national territory due to their behavior,” Valls told reporters.
Photo: EPA
He did not specify the nationality of those that could face expulsion.
Several hundred English, Russian and French fans squared off for three days in Marseille, hurling beer bottles and chairs and drawing volleys of tear gas from riot police who struggled to contain the skirmishes in the city’s narrow central streets.
On Saturday last week, in scenes that drew sanctions from European soccer’s governing body, UEFA, Russian supporters charged their English counterparts inside the Stade Velodrome moments after the final whistle in their teams’ 1-1 draw.
Fifteen fans were arrested at the time. So far, five England fans have been sentenced to jail terms of between one and three months, while a Frenchman received a two-year term.
No Russians were arrested, although Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin on Monday said about 150 Russians were in fact well-organized hooligans.
UEFA yesterday handed the Russian Football Union a suspended disqualification from the tournament and a 150,000 euro (US$168,434) fine over the incident and warned that a repeat would see the team thrown out of the tournament.
It also warned the Russian and English federations that they could be disqualified if there is more violence in cities.
“We will comply with UEFA’s decision. What other position can there be?” Russian Minister of Sport Vitaly Mutko, who is also president of the Russian Football Union, told TASS news agency.
“The punishment is excessive, but we cannot influence it. The fine is enormous as the Russian Football Union is a non-commercial organisation. There is no sense in appealing,” R-Sport news agency quoted Mutko as saying.
With authorities worried that English and Russian fans could face each other again when their teams play in the northern French cities of Lille and Lens later this week, French riot police yesterday surrounded a bus of Russian supporters as it left Cannes for Lille.
Alexander Shprygin, the head of a Russian supporters group, told reporters by telephone that French authorities had drawn up 29 deportation orders.
He said none of the fans in the bus had taken part in the violence in Marseille.
Shprygin posted pictures on Twitter from the inside of a bus showing French police on the outside, writing that “some people” were being “put in a car and taken somewhere.”
Anti-racism groups have accused Shprygin, a self-described nationalist who was photographed as a young man making what looked like a Nazi salute, of having links to Russia’s shadowy far-right movement. He has dismissed the allegations.
Alpes-Maritimes prefect Adolphe Colrat told reporters there were 43 people on the bus, 35 of whom had refused to get off until the Russian consul arrived.
Six were sent to regional detention centers and are in police custody claiming to belong to the Russian Ministry of Sport.
“There are clear signs that some of them took part in unacceptable violence in Marseille,” Colrat said.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a French official confirmed there would be deportations for “radical” supporters.
Xavier Lauch, chief of staff for Alpes-Maritimes’ police commissioner, said authorities had identified 29 Russian supporters suspected of involvement in the worst of Saturday’s fighting and had decided to detain them as part of an “anti-hooligan” operation.
The Kremlin yesterday said that Russian sporting officials and groups should use all their influence to ensure Russian soccer fans behave themselves at the tournament.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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