Footage of soccer hooligans running rampant through the streets of France are deeply disturbing.
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Scenes of violence and mayhem are unfortunately nothing new when it comes to soccer fans, particularly across Europe.
The UEFA Euro tournament brings together 32 of the best football teams – or soccer for the sake of this column – across Europe. It is the opportunity for the sport to showcase some of the finest talents on the planet, including superstars like Cristiano Ronaldo from Portugal.
Unfortunately what the tournament doesn’t do is showcase the best displays of behaviour from its legions of fans. There is a small minority, hell-bent on wreaking havoc wherever they go. It makes you wonder why they even bother travelling to see their team play when all they seem capable of doing is fighting, brawling and destroying things.
To date, the two most troublesome group of supporters has come from England and Russia, with the two facing off against each other on several occasions, throwing rocks, bottles along with plenty of fists and feet.
French authorities have been quick to act to stem the violence, but as is usually the case in these situations, they have been outnumbered and end up being reactionary rather than proactive.
That was certainly the case when the two teams faced off in the French city's Stade Velodrome. It always had the potential to be a powder keg, so when the Russian team grabbed an injury-time equaliser, its fans were already delirious. What ensued was an embarrassment to the sport itself, with Russian supporters firing a flare into the English supporters and then swamped them, threatening women and children in the process.
It was a disgrace.
The sport’s governing body in Europe, UEFA, reacted by threatening to hand out tournament bans to both teams if their supporters are involved in further acts of violence. That may sound harsh, but imagine the reaction if an innocent bystander was maimed or even killed by these thugs and criminals.
In a statement, UEFA said: "UEFA expresses its utter disgust for the violent clashes that occurred in the city center of Marseille, and its serious concern for the incidents at the end of the match inside Stade Velodrome. This kind of behavior is totally unacceptable and has no place in football."
Hear, hear.