English and Russian teams at the ongoing Euro 2016 have been warned they risk discontinuation from the tournament in France, if their respective fans don’t tone down on violence.
The warning by Europe’s soccer governing body UEFA follows violence that erupted after the Saturday game between the two teams in Marseille.
Meanwhile, the head of the Russian supporters group Alexander Shprygin has said that France wants top deport about 50 Russian fans.
Shprygin made the remarks today after French police intercepted a bus carrying Russian fans from Cannes to Lille.
“They want to deport almost 50 people including women who did not take part in anything,” Shprygin, president of the Russian Supporters Union, said.
“The police are making up for their mistakes three days ago. We are in a bus in Cannes and we have been blocked in by riot police. We are not going anywhere for the time being.”
He later said the Russian consul had arrived on the scene, preventing what he said was a planned storming of the bus by the police.
There was no immediate comment from French authorities, who have said about 150 hard-core Russian fans took part in serious violence after Saturday’s match, which ended in a 1-1 draw.
In a related development the Russian national football team has been handed a suspended disqualification from Euro 2016 and a 150,000 euro (118,828.56 pounds)fine after their fans were involved in violent clashes in Marseille, the governing body UEFA has said.
“Charges relating to crowd disturbances, use of fireworks and racist behaviour had been brought against the RFU (Russian Football Union),” UEFA said in a statement.
It said the ethics committee had decided to impose a fine of 150,000 euros and a suspended disqualification of the Russian national team until the end of the tournament.
“Such suspension will be lifted if incidents of a similar nature (crowd disturbances) happen inside the stadium at any of the remaining matches of the Russian team during the tournament.”
