Billy Grant from Beesotted spoke on The Phil Williams show on BBC Radio 5 Live on Monday night about the trouble in Marseille and his fears for the forthcoming England game in against Wales in Lens along with UK security advisor Chris Phillips and Dan Roan from the BBC.
Russia will be playing Slovakia in Lille the day before the England match (Wednesday) and tens of thousands of England fans will be staying in Lille on Wednesday and Thursday as accommodation in Lens is sparse.
As you will hear, Chris Philips – former head of UK Counter Terrorisom Security Office (who has advised the UK Government on dealing with crowds) – agreed wholeheartedly with Billy Grant’s points who re-iterated a statement he made on BBC Rado 5 earlier that went somewhat unbelieved – that England fans had been targeted from day one by French hooligans. Since then, Russian thugs had stepped onto the scene.
He also pointed out that it was footage released by Beesotted showing French hooligans attacking English fans – which has since gone viral – that has gone some was to educating the press (and the world) on what was really going on in Marseille.
Billy revealed that he was told by British police on his return to the UK who met fans off the train at St Pancras that French police had refused advice from the UK police force on how to police this tournament. Chris Phillips confirmed this was the case.
Billy also referred to the mini documentary he shot a few months ago interviewing Ultras in Marseille who predicted the chaos of Euro 2016, stating “The French Police are Incompetent” and would struggle to handle large crowds of football fans based on their tactic of simply banning away fans from travelling for teams with large away support like PSG and Olympic Marseille.
MiniDoc: Marseille Ultras say “French Police are incompetent”:
Minidoc: Marseille Ultras interviewed about England’s return to Marseille since 1998:
Beesotted at the Euros Post Russia Match Podcast from a Marseilles Pub:
Beesotted will be posting their next videos from Euro 2016 here on YouTube.
This clip is taken from The Phil Williams Show on BBC Radio 5 Live. You can hear the FULL show by clicking here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07fdtbx