The Warsaw Court passed the first verdicts to Polish fans, who were involved in the disorders on the day of a match between Russia and Poland. Arrested Poles were sentenced to fines and suspended terms in prison. A Russian fan was sentenced to two months in prison. Meanwhile, according to some reports, the group of Russian football hooligans headed for Warsaw to take revenge.
The Moskovsky Komsomolets daily recalled that massive disorders broke out between the fans of the two countries on June 12, the day of a match between Russia and Poland. Polish fans attacked an organized march of Russian fans before the match that grew into a massive brawl. Some 184 people, including 156 Poles and 24 Russians, were detained then. Ten people were injured.
The Warsaw Court began to pass urgent verdicts to the fans, who were detained during a march of Russian fans on Tuesday, the Novye Izvestia daily noted. About ten people were already given various sentences from a fine of 500 Polish zlotys (4,700 roubles) to a suspended sentence from three to 12 months. The arrested Russians face the deportation from Poland and putting on the black lists in the Schengen zone.
Several groups of Russian hooligans are already on the way to Poland to participate in new fistfights, a Kommersant source in a Moscow fan group said. “As far as I am concerned, most our fighters will arrive in Warsaw by tomorrow. There are several hundreds of serious guys there,” he said. Therefore, Russian fans are saying that local fights in the city cannot be avoided, though the possibility of massive brawls is ruled out. The football fan groups prefer to settle the scores in the fights at the places agreed upon beforehand, he said. Sometimes the talks about the makeup of the fighting sides, their numerical strength and conditions of a meeting between the leaders of the so-called firms may last several months. “Yet, no one agreed with Polish fans beforehand, as the latter use bottles, knuckles and other fighting means frequently, but our fans do not do it,” Spartak fan Denis said. “The fights will sooner be on the outskirts of the city without preliminary agreements, because the city is small and there are many policemen there,” he predicts.
The Rossiiskaya Gazeta daily noted that the social networks posted a picture with a football fan, who is seeking to spark up a brawl with Russian fans with the inscription in English saying, “To our perfect friends from Russia that arrived in our country during the Euro-2012: “On behalf of all Polish guys and girls, please, accept our sincere apologizes for those idiots, who attack you without any reasons. We are always glad to meet you here, all of us are feeling ashamed for few reckless idiots, who are unfortunately the Poles as well.”