When Russian officials make statements like these, it's hardly surprising the level of violence at certain football matches, this was published in the Guardian yesterday :
Russian officials have played down the violence over the weekend in Marseille – and in some cases even praised the fans involved. One top football official said the hooligans had defended the country’s honour and should be forgiven, while a top law enforcement official suggested Europe was “too gay” to know what real men look like.
Moscow football official to violent fans: well done lads, keep it up!
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“ I don’t see anything wrong with the fans fighting,” Igor Lebedev wrote on Twitter. “Quite the opposite, well done lads, keep it up!”
Lebedev, who sits on the executive committee of the Russian football union, is an MP from the nationalist Liberal Democratic party and the deputy chairman of the Russian parliament.
“I don’t understand those politicians and officials who are criticising our fans. We should defend them and then we can sort it out when they come home,” Lebedev wrote in a series of tweets.
Lebedev’s comments were extreme but reflected a general mood of defiance in Russia over the violence. There has been a whisper of condemnation but it has been drowned out by very loud complaints that the apportioning of blame is unfair, with England fans mainly responsible, as well as not a little amount of gloating over the fact that Russia fans supposedly “won” the clashes.
Vladimir Markin, a top official at the country’s investigative committee, scoffed at suggestions that some Russians involved in the violence were hardened fighters who had come especially to fight: “They are surprised when they see a real man looking like a man should. They’re only used to seeing ‘men’ at gay parades,” Markin wrote on Twitter.
Maxim Motin, a member of the Moscow city parliament who was in Marseille supporting the Russia team, told TV Rain that there was “nothing criminal or unacceptable” about the behaviour of Russian fans. He blamed the clashes on poor organisation in the stadium: “Believe me, if that was a Spartak-CSKA game everything would have been much scarier with such a low level of security as there is in France.”
Motin downplayed the clashes at the final whistle: “After the game finished it’s true that some Russian fans rushed the English sector and chased them a bit but it was nothing bad. I’ll repeat, there was nothing out of order. It’s all rumours.”
I think it was a total embarrassment, these sort of 'battles' don't just happen by accident, I find it hard to believe that 150 Russians just bumped into 150+ England supoporters who just happened to be up for a good fight and it all kicked off. I suspect that both parties already knew eachother from possibly back in the UK and this was an opportunity to settle discrepencies 'away from home'. It all looked too prepared from what I could follow on the news...
One would like to believe that this is a thing of the past with Premiership and Championship clubs but I very much doubt it, it's probably more a case of better control than actually changing supporters' attitude, perhaps it was never far below the surface, perhaps I am wrong, time will tell, but as usual it is always the minority that ruin it for the majority. Let's see if Russia has problems with Slovakia or Wales....given the response of their officials, they may even be encouraged!