I followed England around the world in the 90's and trust me, after my visit to Marseille in '98, I really didn't fancy a rerun of that and knew there was always gonna be trouble. Wasn't nice seeing a guy have his throat slashed by 3 'locals' and beyond the port area (which was quite nice when you weren't dodging bottles), the place is a ****hole. Just my opinion of course
Why is it that England fans are always 'provoked' by local hooligans or 'harshly treated' by local police. Could it be because a significant number of them are ****s?
I'm really not saying all England fans are angels and completely without blame...but speaking from experience, just being English when our football team are playing away seems to be the same as wearing a sign on your back saying 'attack me'. There are a good few respected journalists on Twitter etc, saying that the trouble tonight started when a large gang of 'locals' attacked a group of English in a pub who had been watching the France game (as happened to us in Warsaw)....but I guess that won't be reported tomorrow. English fans abroad have always been an easy target to blame, due obviously to a lot of previous through the years, but please realise there are two sides to the story.
Completely agree, in my more limited experience of following England overseas. We don't help ourselves and some 'fans' always seem up for it and I do find it shameful, but 9 times out of 10 it is exaggerated by our own media (usually the 'news' elements rather than the 'sports' ones). See Pete Davies' brilliant All Played Out / One Night in Turin, the best football book ever, and I think also a documentary.
I think that's the documentary that I appear in at the end (for a few seconds)....staggering around in the tear gas with my bag looking for my mate to get out of Turin
To prove a point......there is a video on 'beesotted.co.uk that shows Marseille thugs attacking English fans while they are having a beer and behaving themselves. Now I ask anyone on here....would you retaliate or just sit there and take a bottle in the head ? Easy to blame the English, eh ?
Yeah, I'd read that there really was provocation on Thursday, but I don't think there's any such excuse for last night. https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...olence-marseille-police-european-championship
Agree with Staines on this. Back in the late 80's early 90's i followed England for a bit and always found myself in situations i could not control. Once against Holland i was walking along after the game and the next thing i know, i am in a war zone. I know a lot about the France 98 violance and most of the trouble was caused by immigrants to France who live in the poor areas of Marseille. They had a beef with the local police and England fans were the excuse to light the fuse. Loads of trouble and it will be no different this time. The worse trouble will be after the game tonight or against Wales. I don't go to England games now mainly because i have fallen out of love with the team and set up.
I see Bale has been shouting his mouth off, claiming that the Welsh are more passionate than the English and that the English don't understand that passion. What a tool!!
Most of the England fans are there to enjoy the football. They get targetted as part of a war between a minority wearing England shirts and local thugs. They also have to contend with a very real terrorist threat. Hope they keep their eyes open and stay safe
Well I'm looking good for last place in the sweepstake. Albania a goal and a man down before half time...
So I went into JD Sports (yes I know) in Aylesbury this morning... They have a whole section of England 2016 shirts and paraphenalia...then a section of other Euro2016 shirts, you know France, Spain, Switzerland, Albania etc.....but I could not find a Welsh shirt, search as I might....which I wished to buy to wear with pride this afternoon and on Thursday too So went up to the assistant..."please may I purchase your finest Euro2016 Welsh footy shirt, my kind man" I asked politely. "No call for them here" he said gruffly " I think you will find you are wrong sir" I repled "because as I am here and I want one". "Well you are the first" he replied. Out of nowhere a man with a very broad valleys accent said " No she isn't I have just asked too". The assistant looked very flustered and called the manager ..I thought we were going to be ejected from the shop The manager came down and politely told us, it was company policy not to sell Welsh shirts in England (and English shirts in Wales), as it might cause unrest!!! I shall be wearingmy circa 1980s Admiral Welsh shirt instead....
Did the shop assistant have a name badge saying 'Michael Palin'? Bet they didn't have any cheese either. Wow, Wales starting with a debutant keeper. And 5-3-2, do they always play that?
Scotland are not in Euro 2016. They had both! I should have said , I was offered a rugby shirt......it was from last years RFU World cup and it was in the remainders bin!
I think they do yes. Huge turn out of Welsh fans. Christ, I'm nervous about England's game later already!!
On the evidence of the first two games, every match is going to be tight. I was actually quite impressed with Albania, they moved the ball very nicely. On their day both Wales and Slovakia could give us a nasty surprise, I think the Russians are the weakest in this group. And now I wish I hadn't written that!
