England Hooligans Not Here For The Football, Ireland Fan Says

England Hooligans Not Here For The Football, Ireland Fan Says

Some England fans "just want to wreck the place" rather than enjoy the football, a Republic of Ireland supporter said.

England are facing the threat of disqualification from Euro 2016 if the widespread violence that caused chaos in the streets of Marseille is repeated.

Eoghan Colgan, 26, from Harold's Cross in Dublin, said: "I don't think they really are proper football fans."

He commented on the behaviour of the Irish supporters who he said have been "having the craic with random people".

Mr Colgan said the Irish and Swedish have been on each others' shoulders and have been "dancing around" Paris ahead of their teams' clash on Monday night.

"There is definitely English fans that are just there for football, but every single tournament there seems to be just ... it might be a minority but it seems like a majority of England fans just want to wreck the place and not actually enjoy the football," he said.

"Everybody else knows it. You see all the videos on Facebook in the last day and a half. They haven't even played a game and they were tearing up Marseille."

Uefa branded the behaviour of England and Russian fans before and after their 1-1 draw at the Stade Velodrome as "unacceptable" and said it would not hesitate to impose additional sanctions.

It also opened disciplinary proceedings against the Russian Football Union for alleged crowd disturbances, racist behaviour and the setting off of fireworks by its fans during the game on Saturday night.

It appealed to both country's football bodies to urge supporters to "behave in a responsible and respectful manner", adding: "The Uefa executive committee has warned both football associations that – irrespective of any decisions taken by the independent disciplinary bodies relating to incidents inside the stadium – it will not hesitate to impose additional sanctions on the Football Association (FA) and the Russian Football Union (RFU), including the potential disqualification of their respective teams from the tournament, should such violence occur again."

Republic boss Martin O'Neill described the violence which has marred the start of Euro 2016 as "tragic".

O'Neill and his staff have spent the last week preparing their players in Versailles, away from the trouble.

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