IT'S THE RED ARMY'S FAULT

A few hours before Tuesday's match between Lille and Manchester United, I was strolling through the centre of Lille. I therefore saw the start of the chain of events beforehand: a few hundred English fans had gathered in the central square; they were all singing, which is nice. But they had drunk too much, which is less nice.

I went to get a coffee in the cafe Paul, which is well known in Lille, and the waitress told me with some concern that the English had been in the bar from 10am until 2pm and had spent more than 240 euros (£161) on drinks.

Afterwards, I took a train to Lens' Stade Bollaert and there were already plenty of drunk Englishmen in the carriages who were upsetting the passengers. In fact, some of the drivers refused to do their work and some trains were delayed.

All of this does nothing for the image of Manchester United fans. Nor do they need any help in this regard. In France, English fans are considered the most dangerous in the world.

I think the French police were very nervous after the afternoon's incidents on the trains, and seeing drunk fans trying to scale the fencing must have scared them. It gave off the impression that they were going to try to invade the pitch.

The policemen and the supporters could have spoken with each other but the English don't speak French and I'm not sure that French policemen speak very good English.

The French police claim that English fans had bought tickets on the black market and that there were 5,000 people in a stand that can only hold 3,500.

We have had some problems with violence in French football before.

In November, after a Uefa Cup tie between Paris St Germain and Hapoel Tel-Aviv, a hooligan was killed by a policeman.