English football fans rampage to Paris

Press, 2 March 1984, Page 6

English football fans rampage to Paris

NZPA-PA-AP London England soccer fans were on their way home late yesterday after leaving a trail of destruction in France. They were being escorted by nearly 36 British Transport police officers who were sent to Dunkirk to meet them. The Sealink cross-channel ferry company said that on arrival at Dover the fans would be transferred immediately to a single train where another contingent of transport police would escort them to London’s Victoria Station. “We are determined to avoid a repeat of the trouble which took place on the journey to France,” a Sealink spokesman said. Despite preventive measures by French authorities and a “please behave” plea by the British Sport Minister, fans fought a second battle of Dunkirk on that journey, smashing

cars and slashing seats of a ferry before moving on to Paris. There they vandalised cafes near the Parc des Princes stadium before and after the friendly match yesterday between England and France, which the locals won 2-0. The match was a warm-up to the European Football Championship in June. Officials of Sealink said that fights had broken out among small groups of the 550 fans who sailed on the ferry St Eloi from Dover to Dunkirk. Four of the fans were taken to Dunkirk Hospital for treatment.

Hours before their departure, the British Sport Minister, Mr Neil MacFarlane, had pleaded with the fans to behave so as not to stain further the reputation of English soccer fans overseas. But his words went unheeded as soon as the fans boarded the ferry.

At Dunkirk a few dozen fans found new British Ley-

land cars, due for delivery to Switzerland, in a dock parking area with keys in the ignition. They started playing stock-cars and damaged about 15 cars, the company reported. More trouble came in the Dunkirk-Paris train. The French police boarded the train at Lens, and held it for 30 minutes while trying to calm the fans. They said that fans had broken windows, tom down curtains, and set off fire-extinguish-ers. Special French riot police were on the platform when the train arrived at Paris 50 minutes late, but the fans had calmed down and the police took no action. Three fans were arrested later near the stadium, after windows of a cafe were broken shortly before the start of the match. More trouble broke out inside the stadium shortly after the start of the match, and French riot police intervened, arresting several

English fans, of whom three were reported to be injured. The police, helmeted and wielding truncheons, twice charged the stand where 600 to 800 English fans were concentrated after the fans started throwing bottles on to the field and into the stands. The police then took up positions in the stand to prevent more trouble. There had been fighting between English and French fans outside the ground before the game. A Paris policeman was reported to have been injured in a scuffle with English fans in the damaged cafe near the ground, before the game. As for the football, aside from the two goals, there was not much to report. The match was played before a near-capacity crowd of 48,000 after the French Federation, because of poor early ticket sales, refused to allow the match to be televised live.