Unsporting Hooligans

"The FA [English Football Association] is very disappointed by the terrible scenes that we saw there [in Marselle's Old Port area] and of course condemns such behaviour."
"French authorities have been called] to identify those involved in the troubles and deal with them appropriately and quickly."
Mark Whittle, FA spokesman

CNN -- Clashes in the stadium following the England-Russia match

 

 

"[The players] weren't particularly aware [of what happened] and it certainly had no effect on our preparations for the game and our performance in the game."
Roy Hodgson, England coach

"[It was] wholly unacceptable to see such shameful scenes around football matches perpetrated by a minority of idiotic troublemakers, who have nothing to do with football and its true fans."
FIFA

French police officers charge soccer supporters during clashes in downtown Marseille, France. Riot police have thrown tear gas canisters at soccer fans Saturday in Marseille's Old Port in a third straight day of violence in the city.  (Darko Bandic / AP)

Three days of rioting. Fans proving their credentials as cognoscenti of the beloved game. Likelier, using the games to vent rage and frustration over political and economic fallout of Europe's reaction to Moscow's leading role as the world's most persistent trouble-maker within Europe. The European Championship was the venue for days of violence in the Old Port district of Marseille, carried over from the Stade Velodrome.

Police responded by firing tear gas and water cannons to quell the fighting taking place between supporters of England and those of Russia. Five people were said to have been injured and likely many more not yet counted. A group of Russian fans from one of the stands behind the goal rose against England supporters in the next area. They threw whatever was at hand, and broke through a line of stewards, sending England fans, along with children, racing for the exits.

Uncivilized oafs are guaranteed to vent their frustration during such events when exposure to others against whom there is a grudge affords the opportunity to run amok and indulge in creative expressions of contempt for civilized norms. Needless to say the rioters had been well fuelled with beer and bottles were used as projectiles, littering broken glass everywhere. A grey fog of tear gas stifled the area as riot police attempted to restore order.

Fans tossed chairs pulled off restaurant terraces, scuffled anywhere there was a buffoon-satisfying encounter and attackers appeared to take huge pleasure in fisting and kicking those they didn't appreciate the look of. The sport-barbarians could be readily identified by their bare-chested bravado, head wounds dripping blood. But they're tough and that only added to their credentials as ruffians ready to rumble.