Russia’s violent footie fan

russian-football-fans-violence
russian-football-fans-violence

Euro 2016 has been anything but uneventful. We have seen some great matches this tournament. But there has also been some untoward behavior taking place. We all saw Alexander Shprygin , the head of the Russian soccer supporter’s association, being deported back to Russia after incidents of violence during the Russia v. England game last week on June 11th. We thought that we had seen the last of Alexander Shprygin who was deported with 20 other violent fans, but this was not the case.

Just two days after being deported, Shprygin was found in Toulouse on June 20th. He was apprehended by the French police, who do not know how he was able to re-enter the country as he had vowed to do upon being deported. But clues from his Twitter account suggest that he got creative and gained access through an unconventional route.

It is doubtful that after his second deportation he will be able to sneak back into France to cause more havoc. Shprygin will have to watch the rest of the Euro 2016 from Russia. Without English fans to assault he will have to come up with something else to do. Hopefully something that does not involve injuring anymore people. While we do not condone this behavior it is easy to see how a fan’s competitive nature gets the better of them and can spin out of control. In these cases, you should channel your competitive side into less harmful activities that will still satisfy that competitive drive in you. A good idea is to let your competitive side out through playing online games at http://www.canadiancasinosonline.com/. Games where you play against another player or a dealer are great, like poker or blackjack. Through engaging in competitive game play you can release that potentially harmful hyper-competitive fury in an effective way where you may even strike it lucky and win big!

In the wake of the violence perpetrated by these Russian fans, the Russian striker Fyodor Smolov asserted that the violent incident was not the Russian soccer supporter’s association’s fault, but that it was actually some English and Welsh fans that had provoked the Russian supporters and that there is apparently some video footage attesting to this. He felt that it was unfair that as a result of the shenanigans, Russia had received a suspended disqualification from the competition that would be acted on should there be a repeat performance in terms of the violence. In addition, certain stadia have implemented a ban on alcoholic beverages in order to try preventing another incident from occurring.

However, it does not appear that Smolov actually condones any of the violence. But a Russian MP does. Igor Lebedev, a Russian member of parliament has praised the Russian fans for their violence. He wrote on Twitter, “I don’t see anything wrong with fans fighting. On the contrary, well done lads! Keep it up!” This is a slightly alarming statement to hear from a Russian politician. But hopefully this time Shprygin will not be able to return to France and that the rest of the Euro 2016 games will be peaceful.

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