This article originally appeared on VICE Sports France.Thirty-five injured, with one in a critical condition – that was the toll from the disorder surrounding the England-Russia match in Marseille last Saturday. In the space of three days, the city saw the best and worst of football: the party and the war. Fans from both sides left the port city on Monday. Some are proud, but spirits are low among the majority. Others will still stay for months to come – in a cell at the Baumettes prison in the south of the city.
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"Truly, truly sorry"
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The "fight zone" in Marseille
There's a party atmosphere, even if the previous night a minor clash left the media casting their glare upon England supporters. Harry has come from Leicester. He explains the altercation while ordering his pint at the bar in O'Malley's. On his phone there's an article condemning the behaviour of England fans with a photo of him. "My girlfriend called me in a panic when she saw the article. She didn't understand why I was caught up in this shit. I'm not a fighter. It was guys from here who came looking to stir shit up, we were just defending ourselves." Anthony Heraud, the manager of the pub, was doing the rounds and told me: "I have the CCTV tapes that show it's the English who are being attacked." The prefecture talks to him at 4pm that afternoon about the possibility of an administrative closure. "They want to send everyone to the fan zone but the English feel at home here."
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So much so that they're in the street that runs along the quay in front of the pub. They dance and sing in homage to the Three Lions. A rendition of "Vardy's on Fire!" – to the tune of "Freed from Desire" – is in full swing, but the England fans are also blocking traffic. The riot police intervene. Nicely to begin with, but then with teargas; it breaks things up effectively. Within a minute, the street is deserted and the four pubs have been abandoned. But the English are still nearby, and they are annoyed. We find them a bit further along the quay, in the Vieux-Port area, in a stand-off with police. Around 10 Russians then arrive, enticed by the commotion, and put black t-shirts bearing the name of Lokomotiv Moscow over their faces. They put themselves between riot police and the English, keen to confront both parties. A few arrests later, and calm is restored without too much harm.
"French gays, English gays"
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It's early afternoon, and an English man in his fifties has been beaten up in a square in the city centre, the Cours Estienne d'Orves. With his life hanging in the balance, he is given CPR, and was in a stable state at the time of writing.Around 6pm, the Opéra area becomes a battleground with people chasing after each other, and violent thefts taking place. The locals against the English, the Russians against everyone, with the riot police in the middle of it all. Bottles of beer are flying everywhere and causing damage. They break the front window of the Garnier cafe on the Rue de Suffren; many are injured.
Who started this? Who is attacking who? Nobody really knows. Most of the English will say they only acted in retaliation. On the other side are the openly violent Russian hooligans, depicted by prosecutor Brice Robin as a group of "100 to 150 people […] who came to fight […] they acted very quickly and that explains the difficulties in identifying and arresting them." (None have been arrested at the time of writing).We aren't sure about what motivated the local youths on the other side of the England fans. Some people are talking about revenge for the 1998 fights between English and Russian fans during the 1998 World Cup. But it's simpler than that for one young man who we met in the Belsunce area on Monday. "You have to show them where we are! I tore an England top off one of their fans, it's a trophy. He wouldn't give it to me nicely, so now it's all ripped…"
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In total, 34 people are injured throughout the Saturday afternoon, with one in a critical condition, three seriously injured, and another who has a knife wound. 590 members of the emergency services and more than a 1,000 police officers have been called into action.It's only the build-up to kick-off that allows calm to be restored on the streets of Marseille.By the Vélodrome, England fans are overexcited. We see bloody shirts and bandaged heads but they're singing loudly. They continue to ramp the volume up inside the stadium where the outnumbered Russians respond boldly. Despite a clash in the south stand as the full-time whistle sounds, there are no consequences and there are no more major incidents that evening. The start of a scrap in Vieux-Port is quickly put to bed by tear gas an hour after the game.The match mirrored the action on the streets, with England dominating only to be surprised by a Russian ambush. In the end, it was another sad sight to complete a depressing weekend.Translated into English by Nick Roberts