Artem Dzyuba says it would be “truly stupid” if Russia were expelled for fan violence, and sees political motivations.
It was announced earlier today that the Russian side will be ejected from Euro 2016 if there is a repeat of the violence which marred their draw with England on Saturday.
“It’s not possible!” Dzyuba declared in a Press conference, as reported by L’Équipe.
Artem Dzyuba says it would be “truly stupid” if Russia were expelled for fan violence, and sees political motivations.
It was announced earlier today that the Russian side will be ejected from Euro 2016 if there is a repeat of the violence which marred their draw with England on Saturday.
“It’s not possible!” Dzyuba declared in a Press conference, as reported by L’Équipe.
“We’re not going to be disqualified for this stuff, it would be truly stupid to be disqualified for that reason.
“We get the impression, from reading the British Press, that the English fans are angels. But we must be objective and understand that the blame is shared.
“We don’t like to see these problems in football, we prefer to concentrate on the game. This isn’t a tournament for violence in the street, it’s a football tournament, so we hope our supporters stay within the law.
“There weren’t just problems between Russian and English fans though, there were problems between fans from other countries.
“There’s information given by the authorities and journalists, but I have others. No-one can claim to know the absolute truth.
“I remain convinced that there’s a political background here. Especially when you see how the English press questioned the award of the [2018] World Cup to Russia…”