Kevin Whitcher
So let’s get straight into it. A first hand account of the trouble in the stadium immediately after the match. My experience of the incidents out here in Marseille is fortunately limited to my walking to the stadium before the game, being in it and returning to my hire car afterwards.
The reason for this is that I arrived in Marseille on Eurostar at 3pm on the day of the match, picked up the hire car that will take me round France for the next 12 days and drove out of town to the cheap hotel I am staying at for one night only.
I returned to the city after 7pm local time and after some crawling traffic found a precious parking spot about ten minutes’ walk from the newly refurbished Stade Velodrome. As I walked to the ground, there were a lot of Englishmen. Some had drunk way too much, some had drunk a fair bit but were complis mentis and some hadn’t drunk at all. Many were making their way to the stadium like myself, some were standing around singing. What was certain was that the huge amount of England fans easily outnumbered the Russians. There were a lot of tickets being offered for sale on the street. Whether or not these were genuine I have no idea. But there were a lot of them.
Anyway, there was a lot of singing, plenty of police, but no sign that they were considering the use of tear gas as happened at the old port. As for that, I have probably seen less than you have on TV and I certainly had no desire to head for the area at any time. However, as a cocktail, pissed up English fans, local Marseilles youths, Russian fans and tear gas wielding riot police is not going to be a combination that is ever going to work.
Inside the stadium, a football match took place, in an attempted good time ambience that those on the stadium PA and selecting the images for the big screen tried to create. England played better for most of the game and eventually took the lead, only to blow it in typical fashion in injury time. What happened afterwards was more worrying. As the game neared its end, rockets, fireworks and flares and something that sounded like a bomb were set off in the Russian section, below my ‘neutral’ seat and to the right. There was an announcement on the PA requesting Russian fans to remain in their seats afterwards. Fat chance of that. There were no police inside the stadium that I could see, only Marseille’s stewards. They were helpless at the final whistle. There was some lobbing of projectiles both in and out of the Russian section and then the Russian fans storming the area to their left, in the theoretical neutral section – in reality a mix of England fans, Russian fans and locals.
People panicked and ran in a fashion reminiscent of the tragedy at Heysel. At one point people streaming out of one of the exits suddenly turned back – at the sight of Russian fans meeting them head on from the concourse – and it turned into a very dangerous stampede. The photo that accompanies this article is taken just after that, and I can actually see myself in it, which is kind of worrying. The Russian aggressors have just made their way out into the stand through the exit and are in the process of attacking anyone within reach. I am damn certain there were a few twisted ankles as people panicked trying to make their way over seats and up steps to get away. I was right in the middle of it and for a few seconds was seriously worried that if someone tripped, dozens would end up going over them and people might get very seriously hurt. People tried to get over barriers into the next section. The security inside the stadium had lost control and it was like a scene from English football in the 1970s and early 1980s, except with a lot of women and kids in the crowd. But this at a showpiece event where supposedly safety and security is paramount. How on earth did the Russian fans get their pyros into the ground?
Apparently they did not show all this on ITV, but it was certainly shown on French TV. Why this game could not have been switched to the early kick off I am uncertain. I am sure that has happened in other tournaments. There was an alcohol ban on the Eurostar – not only were they not selling it, but you could not take any to drink in France on the train. But in Marseille, from what I saw, it was freely available.
Drunk English fans are certainly capable of getting involved in trouble abroad, but the Russian ultras are the real deal. Reports indicate that some were armed with knives during violence at the old port in the afternoon. The next World Cup, due to the influence of good old corruption in FIFA, is to be held in Russia. You have to wonder.
I would have preferred to write about a football match, the newly refurbished Velodrome, but you know what? I’ll save it for another day. I read that local youths attacked Northern Ireland fans in Nice. That’s where I am headed today…
