Following the fan violence which marred the EURO 2016 clash between England and Russia, European football’s governing body, UEFA has slammed Russia with a €150000 and a suspended
disqualification from the tournament, to be enforced in case of repeated violence.
In a statement, Uefa said:
“Charges relating to crowd disturbances, use of fireworks and racist behaviour had been brought against the RFU (Russian Football Union)”
It said the ethics committee had decided to impose a fine of €150,000 (£118,857) and a suspended disqualification of the Russian national team until the end of the tournament. The Uefa executive committee still have the power punish further.
“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.”
Russia meanwhile has condemned the behaviour of unruly Russian fans calling them “absolutely unacceptable”. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said:
“This is absolutely unacceptable. We count on Russian citizens and fans to obey the laws of the country they are in, we can only call on our fans not to react to any sort of provocation”.
The head of Russian supporter’s group, Alexander Shprygin, made an allegation that France wants to deport almost 50 Russians after seizing passports:
“They want to deport almost 50 people including women who did not take part in anything,” Shprygin told the Reuters news agency. 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 and are waiting for the consul.”
French officials were unable to immediately corroborate the claims from Russia, but said 29 Russians were stopped in Mandelieu early on Tuesday by police who checked their ID. There were no immediate reports of arrests, French officials added.
Source: Telegraph UK
