Bitesize Rants #1 (Revisited): Football Hooliganism and EURO 2016

My post on football hooliganism couldn’t have been more aptly timed. The levels of violence witnessed in French cities over the last couple of weeks has been shocking, and some of the videos of English and Russians in Marseille doing the rounds on Twitter were absolutely abhorrent.

Before we rush to judge fans from either of these nations as the sole perpetrators of this behaviour, it is worth noting that this is not an isolated incident. During this tournament alone, there have been reports of fighting by Welsh, Irish and Croatian fans.

This builds on my previous post on the Respect campaign in the UK, which is actually part of a wider movement created by UEFA in 2008, designed to 'work towards unity and respect across gender, race, religion and ability'. So far, it has consisted of a video where different people say 'No to Racism' in various languages, which does nothing but demonstrate that there are some weird looking footballers of all races (which I suppose is equality!). 

But I digress. My main point is that, just as with the UK, it doesn't appear to be working. Now some may suggest that this is still just a minority, and while that is true, it doesn't detract from the fact that this is happening just as much (if not more) than it was 10 or 15 years ago.

So what can be done? Well, first of all, UEFA need to be strong and make good on their threats. This 'suspended ban' stuff is laughable, and for two reasons. Firstly, because I can make a strong bet that the majority of those guilty of this violence couldn’t care less about the football, or their team, and have only turned up to fight.

Secondly, because this punishment means precisely nothing. I understand jurisdictional issues, but I refuse to believe that the French are saying that UEFA are not allowed to punish! It just makes a mockery of the penal system, and demonstrates the weakness of the organisation.

So a tip to UEFA – if you want to say you have a ‘zero tolerance’ policy on anything, please actually stick to it. Stop making pointless videos and get rid of those hooligans that have turned up just to fight. And to those English ‘fans’ that are guilty of this, I wish our jurisdiction allowed us to refuse you entry back.