I was looking forward to the Euro 2016 competition. Naively, perhaps, the thought of violence among the fans hadn’t even occurred to me – until reports began to surface of incidents between police and English supporters in the days before Saturday’s match.
You can get into the argument about whether they are true “fans” or not until the cows comes home – the fact remains that they ARE English, they ARE there, and there ARE a lot of them. The single picture above makes it clear that it’s not just a “small minority”. Clearly, a very large number of those at the Euros are so incapable of holding their drink, many will fall to violence two seconds after sniffing a pint of beer.
Every single one of them should be deported. When they get back, their passports should be confiscated for life, and any one of them who already has a criminal record should be chemically castrated so that they can’t breed (although most of them have probably already been doing that since they were fourteen). This is exactly what happens when you don’t punish people when they’re younger, and it needs to stop.
Mind you, if England is portrayed as being “full” of football hooligans, it has to be said that Russia can boast a similar title – with the word “hooligan” replaced by “psychopath”. Russian media is incapable of seeing the truth in anything, be it world events or football, and God forbid that it should admit to any blame lying with its own people, some of whom had managed to get into the ground for the match with martial arts equipment. If what I saw on TV was anything to go by, some of them were pretty much trying to kill people (and yes, Mr Russian reporter, that’s what your psychopathic countryman is trying to do when he is seen repeatedly stamping on someone’s head, or launching his whole weight into a punch to someone’s face).
As it happens, Uefa has threatened to expel both Russia and England from the competition. Personally, I think they should do it right now – kick England and Russia out today.
Although it is unlikely to do anything for the collective Russian psyche, which is about 90 years behind the rest of the world at the best of times, it might provide a suitable wake-up call over here.