Hooliganism at Euros presents scary vista for 2018 World Cup in Russia

IT’S impossible even now, four and five days on from the worst of it, to get the accurate truth about the who and the what of the hooliganism that has marred the start of the European Soccer Championship in France.

Even before the opening ceremony in Paris on Friday night there were reports coming in of disturbances and fighting in the port town of Marseille, with -

- England supporters in the midst of the trouble.

As Friday’s trouble ran into more trouble on Saturday it emerged that the English might be more victim than instigator, and that hardcore Russian supporters, in tandem with local Marseilles

might be the root cause of the ugly and sadly familiar scenes that were beamed back from the south of France.

Of course, with camera phones and social media platforms on which to broadcast the evidence, almost everyone is a photojournalist nowadays, and the savagery of the violence being dished out outside pubs and cafés in the town’s Old Port were truly sickening.

Old-fashioned hooliganism - or at least as much of it as we were permitted to see on the BBC or whatever - was largely confined to the stadium, where rivals fans goaded and then attacked each other before being dispersed by the police.

Yes, ‘firms’ stalked train stations and back streets looking for action but for the most part trouble was either confined to the terraces or was pre-arranged by rival supporters and carried on away from city centres.

Now, those intent on causing trouble are more interested in rampaging through populated areas of cities, actively seeking out anyone and everyone in their path and causing as much harm to person and property alike.

This ‘new hooliganism’ took a sinister twist in France this week with reports that a group of Russian men seemed to come pre-prepared with weapons and a plan to attack unsuspecting England supporters and wade through them in the most violent way with no cause for concern to any innocent bystanders.

Of course, the old John Bull supporters are never entirely innocent in these matters: with their beery and leery antics, their xenophobic chants and their ‘come and ‘ave a go if you fink you’re hard enough’ invitations, it has to be said that trouble goes where trouble is.

But consider this. The next World Cup is two years away and in FIFA’s infinite wisdom it has been gifted to Russia.

If 200 Russians can make their way from Moscow or wherever to France and cause enough trouble to force Uefa’s disciplinary committee to hand the Russian team a suspended disqualification we can only imagine what a nation of Russian hooligans are capable of on home soil.

It should be remembered, however, that Uefa are only sanctioning Russia for “crowd disturbances, use of fireworks and racist behaviour” inside the Stade Vélodrome at the end of their team’s opening match with England, with no sanction applied for the violence perpetrated on the streets of Marseille.

Already, of course, the blame game has started, with the Russian team coach, Leonid Slutsky, and striker Artem Dzyuba weighing in on the argument as to which side is to blame for the trouble. That, in itself, is somewhat depressing two years out from the World Cup going to their country.

With a universally acknowledged terrible record on homophobia and racism - particularly towards black players in their own soccer league - Russia is hardly putting itself out there as a paragon of tolerance and friendliness.

The French police were accused of getting twitchy too quickly in Marseille and deploying tear gas and heavy tactics too soon. We’re not hopeful that their Russian equivalent would be any less reactive to a similar situation.

If you think the stifling heat at the Dubai 2022 World Cup will be hard to bear, just consider the frosty reception most visitors are likely to get in Russia in two years. Not to mind the unmerciful beating the unsuspecting soccer fan could get because, well, as far as the modern day hooligan is concerned, he happens to be in the right place at the right time.

For once, we might be hoping Martin and Roy make a right balls of our next qualifying campaign.