July 11 – The head of the Euro 2016 organising committee wants better collaboration at future finals to prevent the kind of hooliganism that marred the early stages of the competition in France.
Several countries were warned by UEFA about the conduct of their supporters with Russia handed a conditional disqualification after the mayhem in Marseille.
“At Euro 2020, we need to take more serious measures to prevent a repeat of the incident, to conduct preventive measures and to improve cooperation, “ Jacques Lambert told reporters.
“What is the most worrying part I think was the appearance of hooligans groups, who were not so numerous actually but very organised, disseminating extremists ideologies and made up of strong national identity groups whose beliefs have very little to do with football.”
UEFA have been widely criticised for scheduling the England-Russia game in Marseille on a Saturday night. Violence erupted on the streets for several days before well-trained Russian hooligans took the law into their own hands into the stadium.
But Lambert echoed the views of UEFA when he said it was not the responsibility of organisers to police potential flashpoints outside grounds. “Neither UEFA nor the sporting organisations can have responsibility for incidents outside the stadium. We do not possess the powers. However, we have worked in close co-operation with the French government, its police and security forces.”
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