Russia was among 14 countries which signed a convention between the Council of Europe and UEFA on Sunday "aimed at stopping a repeat of fan violence which has marred Euro 2016," according to Brian Homewood of REUTERS. UEFA said that "the convention would include a better exchange of intelligence between police forces to warn countries hosting matches of potential troublemakers." The Euro 2016 tournament being played in France "has seen a return of football hooliganism which had been largely absent from recent international competitions." The worst incidents happened in Marseille "before and after the match between England and Russia where clashes lasted several days." UEFA Stadia & Security Committee Head Michael van Praag said, "I'm sure that in the future we can use the intelligence of various police forces. That has not been working 100 percent until now and this is the reason why we have this convention" (REUTERS, 7/3). WORLD SOCCER's Keir Radnedge wrote Van Praag "rejected a suggestion that UEFA should have recognised the threat to law and order posed by the England-Russia game in Marseille bearing in mind the reputation of both countries’ hooligans and violence involving local troublemakers at the 1998 World Cup." He said, "It’s always easy to say afterwards what somebody should have done. I have deep respect for the abilities of the city of Marseille to organize any match at any risk level and the authorities and UEFA were very well prepared to organize this match in the proper way. No-one expected this [trouble] to happen at this level and the local police did everything they could. But you cannot expect a tournament to change kickoff times and venues because of a draw. There were no signals that this match would be disturbed in the way it was" (WORLD SOCCER, 7/4).
