Euro 2016: 20 Russians deported from France plan to return for Wales game

Alexander Shprygin, who has far-right affiliations and is the leader of the Kremlin-backed Russian Football supporters’ association, is among those being deported

Russian football fans are arrested by French gendarmes after violent clashes (REUTERS)

Twenty Russian football fans being deported from France on Saturday plan to return to France for Russia’s next game as their visas have not been cancelled.

The deportations from Nice follow mass brawls involving English fans around the two countries’ 1-1 draw in Lille last week.

The group of 20, who are accused of hooliganism at the European Championship, were held in a closed-off area of Nice airport before being flown back to Moscow on Saturday afternoon.

But despite the deportation, the group plans to return to France for Russia’s match against Wales in Toulouse on Monday.

Alexander Shprygin, who has far-right affiliations and is the leader of the Kremlin-backed Russian Football supporters’ association, is among those being deported. He said all of the group will return to France to attend the Wales game as their visas have not been cancelled.

After being detained, Shprygin said: “We are to be expelled. I would like to stress, not deported but expelled. They are not deporting us with no right of further entry to the country, they are going to expel us. It means we will keep our visas.”

Those being deported were among a group of 43 Russians who were held by French police amid violent clashes around the England match in Lille.

Three were convicted for violent disorder and given jail terms of between one and two years. All three face a two-year ban from France upon their release from prison.

The arrests have angered the Russian government, which has protested the deportations.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the violence in France was “a disgrace”, but added he could not “understand how 200 of our fans could beat up several thousand English fans”.