It remains the bastard strand of English football’s DNA. The run up to this campaign has been dominated by nostalgia over Euro 96, the moment at which football came home, put on its face paint and transformed into today’s glossy lifestyle choice.
But in the images of charging riot police, bloodied faces, flying bottles and packs of fans descending like dogs on downed rivals were echoes of scenes in Charleroi in 2000 and Marseille in 1998, two years after the supposed watershed of 1996.
Since then, serious disorder has largely been avoided through careful policing, banning orders and a shift in the demographics of those travelling. But the conditions for their return has never entirely gone away.
Of the 20,000 or so England fans who converged on the city, who are among half million or so expected to travel from the UK, the vast majority would have more in common with those who have created a largely benign vibe at recent tournaments.
Elsewhere in the city, they ate, drank and sunbathed. But it was at the old port where cameras documented grim scenes that will obscure all else and, it is feared, set the tone for England’s campaign.
In truth, police in both France and the UK have long been concerned that England’s opening match would be a tinderbox. Memories of 1998 when there were running battles between locals, England fans and jumpy riot police only too ready to charge first and ask questions later remain strong.
The unique conditions in Marseille were always going to prove challenging, given the toxic brew of a large contingent of England fans (most peaceable, a handful intent on violence and some in between depending on drink and provocation), locals who were liable to challenge them, and a hardcore of organised Russian hooligans.
At a pre-tournament briefing by UK police, a theme emerged. Whereas the aim at recent tournaments, certainly since the 2006 World Cup in Germany, has been to convince local police and residents that England fans have changed and educate them that boisterousness may not necessarily equal lawlessness, this time it would be the fans who had to change their behaviour.
With more than 90,000 police, army and security personnel on duty across a country still edgy and jittery in the wake of terrorist attacks on Paris less than seven months ago, the UK liaison officers admitted that fans would have to behave differently.
In Marseille that didn’t happen. Add in military police far from minded to follow UK advice on quietly containing volatile situations rather than clearing areas with teargas, plus the threat from organised Russian hooligans and locals, and the grim scene was set.
Some casual observers will say this confirms nothing has changed since the bad old days.
In reality, the introduction of the England fans membership scheme has largely changed the atmosphere during regular qualifying campaigns and banning orders have prevented known troublemakers from travelling.
Many committed England fans who follow the side home and away are desperately determined not to go back to the days when they were demonised where ever they went and many work hard to build bridges.
But instead, the images that were being beamed across a country still unsure whether it has permission to start enjoying this tournament given the security blanket in place were of the carnage in Marseille. Perhaps there has been too much of a rush to consider the problem solved, or at least contained. Recent campaigns are not valid comparisons.
Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine was logistically challenging, while the travelling hordes at World Cups in South Africa and Brazil often felt interchangeable with an older, more moneyed crowd who might go on an international rugby union or cricket tour.
In contrast, hundreds of thousands of fans will flood unmoderated into France, many of them without tickets. The Football Association and UK authorities may argue there is only so much they can do. In addition, it emerged before the tournament the number of banning orders in place had declined by more than 1,000 to 1,919 since the last World Cup.
It must be acknowledged that the worst of Saturday’s violence came when a highly organised gang of 200 Russian fans caused mayhem when they stormed the English contingent in the old port, leaving several injured and one clinging to his life.
Yet England fans appeared far from blameless. A combination of all-day drinking, a large contingent of boisterous younger fans – some perhaps travelling with England for the first time – and an undeniable minority of hardcore troublemakers led to a toxic brew.
There will be understandable reluctance to apportion blame until the full facts are known. Some will blame heavy handed police tactics, others Russian provocation. Some will question why an already potentially problematic clash was scheduled in Marseille in the first place.
But perhaps it is also time for the wider contingent of England fans to honest about the fact that colonising a central point, draping it with England flags and aggressively bellowing “No surrender to the IRA”, “10 German bombers”, “If it wasn’t for the English you’d be krauts” and “Fuck off Europe, we’re all voting out” with beery belligerence is in itself an act of aggression.
As in 1998, England’s campaign now takes them from the south to Lens in the north – in a match against Wales. A day earlier, Russia face Slovakia in nearby Lille. It seems inevitable that it will be marked by tension and ill feeling, as already jittery organisers desperately hope for the best but fear the worst.
Meanwhile, any claim by England fans to the moral high ground has been left behind with the carpet of broken bottles, blood stained streets and teargas canisters in Marseille.
