Tuesday 14 June 2016 08:11, UK
Joey Barton has revealed that he encountered Russian ultras acting like a "military group" before England's game in Marseille on Saturday.
English fans were attacked by ultras following Saturday's 1-1 Euro 2016 draw in the city, part of three nights of unrest, with Marseille's chief prosecutor saying the Russian hooligans were "trained to fight".
The Rangers midfielder, who was working as a radio pundit at the game, said he and his friends feared for their safety when they ran into a masked group as they looked to get away from trouble flaring at the city's historic port area before the match.
Barton spent a year in the city while playing for Marseille and said he and friends met some of the "organised and brutal" mob of Russian ultras looking for groups of England fans.
The former Newcastle and Burnley midfielder said the Russians he encountered looked like professionals compared to drunken England fans and believes they were "looking to do serious damage".
He told the Daily Record: "I ran into the Russians in action myself earlier in the day and it was a scary sight. They were clearly highly organised. They operated like a military group.
"I was with two of my pals, one of whom had his young lad with him - a five-year-old boy. We could sense there was going to be trouble so I thought I'd try to lead them away using the back streets that I know from living here.
"We used underground Metros to try to get away from the problem areas but as I came up the stairs of one station I just ran into this gang. They weren't even in the main streets, they were running round the back streets because they were trying to cut the English fans off.
"But thankfully, they weren't interested in us. There was 40 or 50 of them and they were looking for groups of England fans. They weren't picking people off in ones or twos. Fortunately, my mates and I weren't wearing any England kit, just the little lad. We walked right through the middle of them and there was no animosity or hostility."
The 33-year-old said they met another England fan who had managed to get through the Russian group before they all ran from the mob, adding: "If you had put camouflage on these guys you would have thought they were the Russian army. That's how big they were. They all had balaclavas on, or face masks or ski masks and knuckle-dusters."
