Young, fit, muscular men with masks, gumshields and telescopic truncheons, the Russian “elite ultras” attacked not just with drunken gusto but with well-honed, premeditated viciousness.
The violence that has broken out in isolated flare-ups at this year’s Uefa European Championship in France began in an almost homely way. What is it about the English and shuttered French squares, pavement cafés and evening sunshine?
England’s footballers were in Marseilles on the opening weekend of the Euros, just as they were at the 1998 World Cup, which was won by France’s great unifying, multiracial team. Once again, with England back in …read more
Source: New Statesman
