Stratford Town fans witness 'scary' hooliganism in Marseilles

A group of Stratford Town fans have spoken to the Herald about the terrifying football hooliganism they encountered whilst watching England in Marseilles this week.

Luke Hopkins, 30, and Mo Chaudhry, 31, are part of a seven-strong group from Stratford cheering on England in the European Football Championships in France.

Staying just outside Marseilles, the group managed to avoid much of the trouble that has erupted in the city, but experienced disturbing scenes inside the stadium towards the end of England’s match with Russia.

Luke said: “In the stadium itself it was all fine for about three quarters of the game, there were no foul chants or anything, but then a red flare was thrown into the England end and fireworks went off. It was concerning, we were not sure what was going on. Of course with everything else that has gone on surrounding the tournament it was really worrying hearing a loud bang like that but it soon became apparent what was happening and that it was a firework. We didn’t have to climb over the fences to escape, but it was a bit scary.

“We heard that there were no police in the stadium, nobody seemed to intervene at all inside which was really worrying, there was lots of riot police outside as we left.

“It was bad outside the stadium because everyone was desperate to leave quickly, but there wasn’t enough transport and there was a four-hour wait for taxis. Luckily we had got to know the manager of a bar and he arranged for someone to get us away from Marseilles. We don’t want to risk going back into Marseilles to watch the next England game at the fan zone.

“Marseilles is a tense place to be, it’s made it difficult to enjoy the experience. We won’t be going to see the other match this week, we’ve heard about all the Russian fans going to Lille and it’s put us off. We definitely won’t be going across to watch England play in the World Cup when it goes to Russia.

Mo added: “In the stadium we didn’t really see what was going on but we had some friends in another section who told us afterwards that the Russian fans were rushing at the England supporters in our section. They were surprised that we managed to get out of there without meeting any trouble.

“When the fireworks went off you just thought, oh no what’s going on now. I think it was just a very unfortunate mix of things happening in Marseilles, you had the Russians the French and English fans in the city.

“We’ve been chatting about whether this would put us off watching England, we certainly won’t be going to the World Cup in Russia.”

Are you attending the European Football Championships in France? have you any witnessed scenes like these? email us at news@stratford-herald.com