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Police Chief warns England fans on risk of “extreme violence” from Russian hooligans

With as much as 20,000 England fans expected to attend the Russia 2018 World Cup, Britain’s most senior police football officer has warned England fans on  risk of “extreme level of violence” from Russian hooligans.

Deputy Chief Constable, Mark Roberts, who was in charge of Britain’s policing at the Euro 2016 and also will be in charge of the same role during the World Cup, mentioned that there will be risks in Russia.

He warned that Russian hooligans posed enormous risk to visiting fans despite efforts made by Russian authorities to crackdown violence; any form of invasion from England fans in Russian public will meet with “firm” resistance from Russian police and also that supports should expect severe jail term if arrested for any act of rioting which almost got them sanctioned during the Euro 2016.

England and Russian fans collided in Marseilles during the Euro 2016 competition which left scores of supporters wounded.

Britain’s official suggested that the attacks on English fans were state supported after Russian authorities failed to take action.

A senior Russian parliamentarian on his Twitter handle had posted “well done lads, keep it up!” while Russia’s President Putin had made a joke about it saying “I don’t know how 200 fans could hurt several thousand Englishmen.”

However, the Russian police has made several arrests after the incident and issued bans on a lot of Russians involved in the attacks. Despite the moves made by Russia to curb hooliganism, reports still show that, England fans are targets for attacks during Russia 2018.

Mark Roberts said;

“There are risks, because if you look back to what happened in Marseilles, there were Russian supporters there intent on causing significant disorder and causing significant injury.

“You only have to go on YouTube to see that there is an active hooligan issue in Russia and it generally operates at a pretty extreme level of violence. There clearly is a potential issue.

“The balance to that then is, ‘Do we think the Russian police are going to treat it seriously? Is there a commitment from Russian state to treat it seriously?’ And I think, everything I’ve seen, the reassurance is there.”

Britain is however contemplating if fans will be advised to avoid putting on English colours and jerseys just as other English clubs had advised their fans during match visits in Moscow.

Roberts also cautioned the English fans from antagonising Russians and Russian police.

Police estimates that 20,000 supports would attain the Russia 2018 after the Marseilles clash. That is a far cry compared to the over 500,000 English fans at the Euro 2016 in France.

“Russia is a pretty rugged society in many ways in terms of how they deal with things. And just because England fans travel abroad, you can’t expect everybody, suddenly, to adopt a British policing style, to have a degree of tolerance about things, to – and it’s a word I hate – write off sometimes pretty offensive chanting as ‘banter’.

“If anyone’s intent on actual violence or disorder, I think they’ll get a pretty robust response.

“I think it’s going to be a pretty harsh regime and I wouldn’t have thought you’d want to be in prison with the label of ‘English football hooligan’ in Russia,” Mark Roberts concluded.

Meanwhile the English FA has declined to make any comment on the statements made by Mark Roberts but has reinstated that the safety of supporters is priority.

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