Fans’ leader: French police are making violence worse

BAD decisions by French police are escalating the violence, says the head of a major supporters group.

Kevin Miles, Chief Executive of the Football Supporters Federation, who witnessed the terrifying scenes in Marseille, said: “The English police don’t police football in the same style and there’s a good reason for that.

“They’ve learned from experience that there are much more effective ways of policing a football crowd.

“I don’t think the policing style that we’ve seen is particularly suited to de-escalating situations.

“It contains and it can disperse, but it doesn’t de-escalate the situation.

“But we’re in a different country, different rules and strategies apply. Part of what we’ve seen today is a consequence of that.” Mr Miles criticised the French police’s use of teargas, saying: “Teargas is a very indiscriminate weapon.

“It makes no distinction between perpetrators and passers by. It just stokes up the anger of everybody, because people who have done nothing wrong get gassed.”

He said Russians and locals had instigated a lot of the violence, and that French officers were responding by attacking fans indiscriminately.

Mr Miles added: “I’m not suggesting for a moment all English fans are angels. A lot of them have been drinking and then there’s been a response when they’ve been attacked, but, you know, who wouldn’t?”

“You’ve had a lot of English fans drinking in the city, but there hasn’t been any trouble until they’ve been attacked by groups from outside.”