France jails three Russian fans, deports others

Far-right figure Alexander Shprygin, who heads a Russian football supporters’ association, is among the 20 fans from the detained group who will be expelled from France.

Thousands of riot police were on high alert in Lens, the industrial northern city where up to 50,000 supporters gathered as England faced Wales.

Six England fans, aged 20 to 41, have also received jail sentences ranging from one to three months as a result of the disorder.

It follows violence at the England-Russia Euro 2016 match in Marseille.

The Russian foreign ministry said the 20 fans would be placed on a flight from Nice to Moscow on Saturday.

“These people claimed belonging to a “Tour de France of violence”,” Robin said.

A spokesman for Marseille prosecutors said the seriousness of the injuries “have led to us investigating an attack on two England fans as attempted murder”.

Uefa’s decision effectively means England are not under any threat of disqualification over their fans’ behaviour.

European football’s governing body Uefa said yesterday that it was planning no executive committee meeting in the wake of overnight fan violence on the streets of Lille.

England and Russian fans had clashed last week at Marseille and violence featuring unruly fans from these two countries has continued to mar the biggest football event after the FIFA World Cup.

The far-right activist, who has been pictured performing a Nazi salute, was among 43 Russians arrested on Tuesday on their way to Lille to watch Russia’s second match against Slovakia. The three fans are the first to be jailed after Saturday’s game.

“Lille city centre was the scene of scuffles… provoked essentially by drunken British nationals, forcing police to intervene to disperse them”, the regional administration said in a statement.

Police across France are trying to suppress hooliganism at a time when the country is under a state of emergency following the attacks that killed 130 people last November.

Football-related fan violence is not a new phenomenon, especially in Europe where several groups have resorted to it (often repeatedly) since over two centuries, where it has evolved from two unhappy groups of supporters to political differences, race, xenophobia and so on.

Shprygin and the other supporters will be deported within five days.