More bad news from the south of France.
With the game against Russia a matter of hours away, riot police used tear gas on English supporters for the third successive day amid more ugly scenes in Marseille.
Yet again, the city’s harbour was the backdrop, as shown by the following footage posted by ITV reporter Emma Murphy.
From high spirits to this – again #Marseille can't say what triggered it but v nasty pic.twitter.com/cWuIi7iWMZ
— Emma Murphy (@emmamurphyitv) June 11, 2016
Undeterred by the tear gas canisters, some ‘fans’ can be seen throwing missiles.
Others chose to flee the scene.
Running from the teargas #Marseille pic.twitter.com/zF5e9hr3so
— Emma Murphy (@emmamurphyitv) June 11, 2016
Right now #Marseille pic.twitter.com/GtgKmZjbcr
— Emma Murphy (@emmamurphyitv) June 11, 2016
But although such scenes are becoming depressingly familiar, it’s important to stress that, yet again, the following scenes are the result of a small number of idiots.
English, French and Russians involved in the violence. Filmed all day with so many v decent fans. Minority at fault again. #Marseille
— Emma Murphy (@emmamurphyitv) June 11, 2016
As much as some sections of the media would have you believe that all England supporters are shirtless, beer-fuelled, violence-seeking yobs with ‘English and proud’ tattooed on their foreheads, that’s simply not the case.
The vast majority of those in the city are good-natured people who are there to watch a football match. This side of things is all too easily forgotten.
Take this bunch for example. There’s no animosity here…
England & Russian football fans in Marseille play friendly game ahead of the main event. Russia winning this one,5-3 pic.twitter.com/ovCatAGydZ
— Jonathan Wald (@jonathanwalditn) June 11, 2016
As was brilliantly summed up by journalist Iain Macintosh, unfortunately, some football fans (no matter what nationality) are dicks. There might not be very many of them, but in only takes a handful to cause negative headlines.
Let’s hope the idiots involved spend tonight in a police cell, not at the the Stade Velodrome.
