Police officers arrest a soccer fan during clashes before the Group A Euro 2012 soccer match between Poland and Russia in Warsaw June 12
WARSAW—UEFA has fined the Russian football association €120,000 ($150,000) after its fans attacked stadium stewards at a European Championship match.
UEFA says Russia could be deducted six points in its Euro 2016 qualifying group for a repeat offence. The probationary period expires at the end of Euro 2016 qualifying.
Russian fans were filmed fighting with stadium staff in Wroclaw after a 4-1 win over the Czech Republic last Friday. Police said violence flared when stewards tried to detain a man they believed threw a firecracker.
Russia’s fine was also imposed for the thrown firework and because fans displayed nationalist flags.
UEFA rules hold football associations responsible for their fans’ behaviour inside stadiums.
Meanwhile, Warsaw’s mayor apologized Wednesday to visitors for soccer hooligan violence that left dozens injured and caused others to feel unsafe.
For the most part, however, Polish officials tried to put a positive spin on Tuesday’s disturbances, saying a strong and effective police response prevented worse bloodshed. One official called it the biggest-ever police security operation in Warsaw. Riot police fired rubber bullets and used water cannon and tear gas, while officers detained 184 people — most of them Poles.
The Interior Ministry issued a statement saying police “did not allow aggression to escalate on the part of the hooligans” and caught “the most aggressive fans.” It also stressed that most Polish and Russian fans enjoyed themselves in a spirit of “festivity.”
Warsaw Mayor Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz apologized to “our guests,” the thousands of visitors who travelled here for Euro 2012, calling the violence a “scandalous” disturbance of public order.
“I apologize and I deplore the fact that hooligans have exposed our guests to a loss of a sense of security,” Gronkiewicz-Waltz told a news conference.
Authorities gave varying figures on the number of injured. Police said 19 civilians and 17 officers were injured; ambulance officials gave an overall figure of 24 earlier in the day; and Warsaw Province Governor Jacek Kozlowski said up to 140 people required some type of medical treatment, including for the effects of tear gas.
The trouble started when about 5,000 Russian marched through central Warsaw waving national flags and chanting “Russia, Russia” while making their way to the National Stadium for Tuesday’s game. It was seen as provocative to many Poles. The two countries share a difficult history, including decades of control by Moscow over Poland during the Cold War. Many Poles felt authorities shouldn’t have allowed the Russians to march as a group in Warsaw given the historical wounds.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that, all in all, the trouble was “limited in scale” compared to what it might have been given the heated national emotions and the numbers of fans on each side. About 45,000 people watched the game at the stadium and around 75,000 others on huge TV screens in a downtown fan zone. The fights were scattered across downtown Warsaw. None were at the National Stadium or in the downtown fan zone.
The game ended in a 1-1 tie and that may have helped defuse tensions from escalating into further violence since neither side could claim victory over the other. The final score also prompted comments of relief from Poland supporters and newspaper headlines Wednesday that stressed Poland still has a chance to advance to the quarterfinals if it defeats the Czech Republic on Saturday.
Police said they would review their security procedures. The clashes were embarrassing and painful to many Poles, who resent that a small number of thugs cast a bad light on the country. Poland has been looking to Euro 2012 to highlight how much it has modernized and developed since throwing off communism in 1989.
The quiet after the storm here in Warsaw on Wednesday afternoon though, honestly, it wasn’t that much of a storm.
Considering that police officials here were calling the arrival of the Russian supporters “the greatest ever challenge for law and order forces in the capital,” I half expected to wake up and find the Vistula beaver-dammed with corpses. This is a country that went through a small security hiccup called the Second World War, after all.
This morning, there were 183 arrests in all, though that figure was expected to rise. Ten injured, none life-threatening. There was apparently a fair bit of Pole-on-Pole fighting, likely related to extremist supporters from multiple local clubs getting together and figuring after a while that if the cops weren’t going to let them beat up Russians, they might as well kick the snot out of each other for the sake of variety.
As I wrote today, I still think the images of the sporadic violence last night make the tournament a write-off in terms of projecting a shiny, happy image for Poland. But all things considered, Polish security did yeoman’s work in not allowing things to get completely out of hand.
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I cannot go back to Gdansk. Really. It’s not Gdansk. It seemed lovely as it sped by in the window of the train.
I just can’t bear the thought of the night train back again.
The one on the way up there is lovely — six to a compartment, as many women as men on board, nobody is vomitously drunk.
The 2 a.m. train back — the one I took after Spain-Italy — is another story. It’s an older, more decrepit vehicle. They squeeze eight into a compartment — two rows of four facing each other with about 18 inches separating the two benches. You’re not knee-to-knee. It’s a lot closer than that. The journey takes six-and-a-half hours.
All of the people on board are men and most have reached the queasy stage of extreme drunkenness. They don’t look well. In fact, they look like they should get off this train and find an ER and die there, rather than in here with me.
To your dismay, you are now living in the first scene of Contagion. One of these flesh-sacks of pestilence is going to cough on you and give you Ebola. You’re going to get off this train looking as bad as these mopes and wander off into traffic and be run over. It’s inevitable.
After an hour, the guy across from you is starting to take off his shoes, and you’re starting to get scared. An hour later, you pop out of a feverish dream and find that his seal flippers are now wedged into your crotch, as he looks for a way to spread out. He’s asleep. Oh God, you hope he’s asleep.
By the third hour, everything smells like a urinal because the actual urinal is so fetid that no one who goes in there can bear to close the door.
During hour four you give some serious thought to the phenomenon of jumping off trains. They do it in the movies, right? Hobos do it all the time, and those guys are in terrible physical condition. At least as bad as you. And they survive. The key is rolling. You have to roll into it. Wouldn’t it be nice to just lie down there in the ditch, with nobody trying to jam his toes under your ass so that he can simulate lying down in a moving prison cell?
In hour five, you can see the end coming — and I don’t mean Warsaw Central station. This is what hell must be like, trying to get to sleep in a room full of reeking gorillas for all time. Jean-Paul Sartre obviously never took the Gdansk-Warsaw night train.
By hour six, the paranoia has got hold of you. Where is this train going? Is it really going to Warsaw? That guy across from you — he’s obviously wearing a disguise. Who wears a fake moustache on a night train? And, far more importantly, WHY?! Hour six is the worst.
Then the train pulls in and as soon as you see the platform and the ‘Centralna’ sign, you kick out the windows of your compartment and climb through the jagged glass because the two more minutes you would have to wait to get off this coach across the River Styx is two minutes more than you can bear.
So instead, I will drive to Poznan with Morris and see Croatia/Italy instead of seeing my forebears get shellacked by Spain. What could go wrong?
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I should wrap up the story of Misha, the Kiev cab driver.
As promised, Misha showed up a couple of minutes before noon for the drive back to Borispol Airport. He was in good form after the famous Ukrainian victory the night before.
“Oo-cry-ee-NA! Oo-cry-ee-NA!” Misha shouted as he popped out of the car.
I’d invited Doyle to share the cab, so as to split the 250 UAH ($30) fare. Misha excitedly told us in halting English that he’d had several Swedish fans in the cab the day before. They’d promised a 3-1 Sweden victory.“Ha ha, Sveda!” Misha gloated, and then mimed jamming his fist up a very uncomfortable Swedish passage.
Again, Misha was anxious to get our thoughts on the musical selections.
“AC/DC?” he wondered.
“Highway to Hell,” Doyle suggested. Misha didn’t catch the reference.
We pulled up at the airport and I handed over the 250.
Misha turned, and now his English was much better.
“No, no, sorry,” Misha said, making the international ‘sorry’ face. “Business pick-up. 380. Sorry.”
He was not really sorry.
My fault for assuming. And worth the extra 12 bucks for the experience.
WARSAW—Russian and Polish soccer hooligans were involved in violent clashes on the streets of Warsaw on Tuesday before an emotionally charged match between their countries got underway at Euro 2012.
Police said more than 100 people were detained and that 10 people were injured; seven Poles, two Russians and one German. None were in a life-threatening condition.
Security camera footage was meanwhile being studied by police to try and identify others involved.
Following the incidents, the website of Moscow radio station Ekho Moskvy reported that Russian authorities were sending Mikhail Fedotov, head of the presidential council on human rights, to Warsaw to help deal with the situation.
In what appeared to be the most violent incident, Polish hooligans attacked Russians, who responded violently. The two sides, made up of dozens of men, kicked and beat each other in the face, while flares could be seen exploding in their midst.
Associated Press journalists saw several people lying injured and bleeding on the ground, with one of them appearing to be seriously hurt. Poland and Russia fans were also seen fighting and throwing stones outside the stadium.
READ MORE: The fine art of crowd control in Ukraine
There were a number of other incidents, which came as about 5,000 Russia fans waving their country's flag marched to the stadium in a show of patriotism seen as provocative to many Poles. During the match, fresh fighting broke out among Polish fans near a fan zone in the centre of the city.
The march was considered a huge security challenge and police were bracing for possibly more trouble after the match.
The two countries share a difficult history, including decades of control by Moscow over Poland during the Cold War. Many Poles felt the Polish authorities should not have allowed the Russians to march as a group in Warsaw given the historical wounds.
Russia fans clashed with police on a bridge near the National Stadium and police were later seen making arrests.
The news agency PAP reported that police used water cannons and tear gas to control the disturbances.
In another incident, a group of clearly drunken Polish men began fighting among themselves, hitting and kicking each other. Two were on the ground bleeding and police intervened, throwing two more to the ground. The men were holding cans of beer and mumbling and one appeared to be unconscious. An AP reporter witnessed the incident and saw police detain three people.
One Russian who didn't have tickets to the game, but made the two-day car trip from Moscow simply to be in be the city, said it was wrong for the Russians to march in Warsaw given the countries' troubled history.
“The march, it wasn't right. It was a provocation. It shouldn't happen like this. But there are also aggressive Poles and we are scared here,” said the 26-year-old man, who gave only his first name, Petya.
He and a friend had hoped to cross a bridge leading from the city centre to the stadium to soak up the atmosphere in the area. But they gave up that notion and were sitting outside, sipping on beers from a distance, and were about to go watch the match on TV in an apartment with friends.
In recent days, Polish media have tried to stir up nationalistic sentiments over the match, suggesting the encounter would be more than a simple soccer competition. Newspapers Monday were full of dramatic references to Poland's victorious 1920 battle against the Bolshevik Army, known as the Miracle on the Vistula.
The Super Express tabloid carried a front page mocked-up picture of Poland coach Franciszek Smuda charging on horseback, saber in hand, in a 1920 Polish army uniform under the headline “Faith, Hope, Smuda” — a play on an old army motto: “Faith, Hope, Motherland.”
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