Marseille has been the set for a throwback to far uglier times in the world of football. Just two days into the 2016 European Championships and it is the hooligans, not the football, that is making the headlines.
No hooliganism more so than what we've all witnessed on social media and in the news in Marseille. But who exactly is to blame?
We were lucky enough to have a man in Marseille willing to share his experiences and pin point exactly where the blame for the violence should lie...
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Violent scenes two nights in a row in Marseille have seen a rush to point the blame at pretty much any group available. England fans, Russian hooligans, the National Front, the locals, and the police have all had criticism leveled at them. But who was really behind the scenes across Marseille this weekend?
Despite the worst elements of both sets of fans, there's no doubt that the police were at best heavy-handed, and at worst completely out of control. One incident involved a bar facing its last orders for a mostly Scottish group of fans with a couple of England supporters mixed in. Upon quietly leaving the bar, a horde of police with dogs entered the fray, and when one of the hounds went for an unfortunate Scot, the officers quickly piled in to attack with pepper spray and firing dozens of tear gas canisters at a tiny handful of outnumbered supporters as they ran away with their hands (and un-spilled pints) held aloft. In cases such as this, there was no provocation whatsoever - a clear example of the police just seeing what they assumed was a group of England fans and wanting to get some baton-practice in.
Credit: PA
Other times it's been less clear cut. Much of the trouble undoubtedly came with clashes between English and Russian fans and the police wading in to leather anyone who was remotely near any of the trouble. A common excuse heard is that the authorities are jumpy after the Paris terrorist attacks, but it's hard to see any overlap between fan trouble and possible bombings or shootings.
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The provocation between the two sets of fans has been about equal, but very different. Russian fans mostly consist of well-mannered families here to have a good time, with a sizeable minority of hardcore far-right hooligans thrown into the mix. It was those, bearing their Imperial Russian flags, who launched the attack on the England fans in the stadium during the match. A buffer of neutrals in between quickly dissipated as soon as trouble started, and the England fans instantly fled at the sight of it.
Another incident however, that you can see in the video below, wasn't provoked at all. England fans had been on the terrace singing and enjoying themselves, all in good nature. Separated from friends, I began filming as I heard noise and saw bottles smashing around me. Before I knew it there were men in balaclavas around two metres away from me with chairs in their hands. That's when I actually realised it was a bit serious. The barmaid and bar owner rushed us into the bar to take cover and were fantastic. As quick as it started, it was over. Shortly afterwards we went outside and the guys in balaclavas were all on the floor in handcuffs.
It's been painted as organised violence, but it's difficult to say how accurate that is. Russian fans are more organised purely by the nature of their supporters possessing the more disciplined, ultra-style support among their hardcore fans as opposed to the more spontaneous culture in England. Combined with there being far fewer Russians here, they're quite obviously more organised.
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But how much of the violence was planned is pretty questionable, beyond "let's go and fuck those guys over there up." The nearest thing was a group of t-shirt-uniformed fascists marching in a small but solid group down the streets, attacking anything in sight, which caused much of the serious violence (after long periods of provocation and skirmishing between the two groups).
Credit: Callum Hamilton
England fans, in contrast to some reports, have had few vanguard hooligans involved. No such groups are visible anywhere in the city. Instead, where the 'small minority of idiots' is a truism for the Russian fans, for the English hordes the idiocy is more thinly and evenly spread throughout. It hasn't taken much provocation for groups of fans to launch into aggressive and borderline racist chanting as soon as anyone in a foreign-looking shirt approaches or tries to drink in the same bar.
If Russian violence has been organised, English violence has been the opposite. And the dis-organisation means that there have been more targets and a lot more collateral damage involved. While Russian fans have mostly donned balaclavas and the odd tool to launch serious attacks on England fans, the Anglo-Saxon groups here have instead had impromptu scraps with pretty much anyone around - the Russians, yes, but also mostly the locals, and of course each other.
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Credit: PA
In short, there aren't too many saints around Marseille at the moment. The England fans have done a lot of the provoking, the Russian fans have launched outbursts of the most serious violence, and the police have been rash in dealing with the trouble. The least blameless group would probably be the locals, although even a few of them have gotten caught up with running battles with the police - something that isn't too strange a sight in Marseille at the best of times.
Whether other sets of fans will get the same treatment remains to be seen. Monsieur Plod's long and proud tradition of testing their pepper spray on certain groups of fans more readily than others has probably played a part, but England and Russia fans have hardly been model guests on France's south coast. The police's behaviour can't be excused, and has probably contributed to the hostile and paranoid atmosphere around the city at present.
But just don't be too ready to believe the reports about blameless fans, agents provocateurs, or anything that sounds too one-sided. There are plenty of innocent individual victims here, but they're the victims of aggressive mob mentality from the fans and police alike, not just from one group.
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Words by Callum Hamilton
Featured Image Credit:Topics: Euro 2016, England, Russia