Russian soccer executive wants fans to keep fighting at Euro 2016

Russia faces sanctions after soccer fans loyal to the country scuffled both inside and outside a French stadium that hosted a Euro 2106 game over the weekend, but a Moscow soccer official took up for the soccer hooligans on Monday.

“I don’t see anything wrong with the fans fighting,” Igor Lebedev, a member of the of the Russian soccer union’s executive committee, wrote on Twitter. “Quite the opposite, well done lads, keep it up!”

The Guardian was the first to report in the English-language news media on the tweets believed to be from Lebedev. His comments mirror what Lebedev told the Russian news site life.ru.

Lebedev went on to blame police officials for not responding to British soccer fans, whho he says incited the violence at Saturday’s game in Marseille.

After he faced a round of criticism for his apparent endorsement of violence, Lebedev doubled down.

“Everyone who wrote bad things under my tweet in support of our fans, I want to say: RUSSIA WAS, IS AND WILL BE GREAT COUNTRY!!!”

Both Russia and England were threatened with sanctions – including kicking both countries out of the Euro 2016 tournament --  by UEFA, the governing body of football in Europe,  after the 1-1 tie of a Group B game in Marseille.

"UEFA expresses its utter disgust for the violent clashes that occurred in the city center of Marseille, and its serious concern for the incidents at the end of the match inside Stade Velodrome," UEFA said in a statement per The Associated Press.