England team urges fans to behave at Euro 2016

Roy Hodgson and Wayne Rooney urge England fans to behave at Euro 2016

• ‘I’m appealing to you to stay out of trouble,’ says Hodgson
• England and Russia both threatened with expulsion from Euro 2016

Roy Hodgson and Wayne Rooney have urged England supporters to stay out of the kind of trouble witnessed before and after their match with Russia in Marseille over the weekend after Uefa threatened to throw both sides out of the competition.

“As the England manager I am obviously now very concerned about the threat that is hanging over us and the sanction that could possibly be imposed upon the England team,” said Hodgson, in a recorded a video, shared by the Football Association on Twitter. “We worked very hard to get here and we want to stay in the competition.

“I’m appealing therefore to all of our fans, and we appreciated your support at the matches of course, but I’m appealing to you to stay out of trouble and try and make certain that these threats that are being issued are never carried out and we will be able to do the best we can to stay in the competition.”

England fans were involved in fights with Russian supporters in Marseille before the Group B match, while after the game Russia fans attacked the English in the ground for which they have been separately charged by Uefa.

The Football Association has appealed to England supporters to be “responsible and respectful” after being warned by Uefa that England risk being kicked out of the tournament and while the French prosecutor, Brice Robin, has acknowledged that approximately 150 trained Russian hooligans were behind much of the trouble, England supporters were also culpable.

England face Wales in Lens on Thursday and supporters without tickets had been urged to travel to nearby Lille instead, despite the fact that Russia face Slovakia there on Wednesday.

“I’d like to thank the fans for the support against Russia. Now we have a big game coming up against Wales and I’d like to ask the fans, ‘please, if you don’t have a ticket, don’t travel’,” said Rooney. “And for fans with tickets, ‘be safe, be sensible and continue with your great support for the players’.”

Guardian