MARSEILLE, France (AP) — As cleaners hosed down sidewalks and swept up broken glass early Friday, the manager of an Irish bar near where soccer supporters from England fought overnight with locals in Marseille’s historic center said youths from the city’s gritty suburbs provoked the clashes.
The brief clashes late Thursday revived bitter memories of days of bloody fighting in this Mediterranean port city between England hooligans, Tunisia fans and locals of North African origin during the World Cup in 1998, and raised fears of more violence ahead of Saturday’s European Championship match between England and Russia at the Stade Velodrome.