Ten years after being arrested for disturbances following an England game in 2004’s Euro football championship, 25 England fans are due to go on trial in Portugal on July 1 – whether any of them will turn up or not remains to be seen. This extraordinary development comes 10 years after the Albufeira riots that followed the fateful match between England and Switzerland on June 15, 2004.
English fans went on a full scale rampage through the Oura district of the town, breaking bottles and running amok. On the first night, 14 were arrested – the next day another 34 more were detained. Ten fans were immediately deported and in the case of one, Garry Mann, deportation led to what many described as a farcical trial years later which saw him jailed both in Portugal and UK.
Mann’s treatment is certain to influence the way any others who were deported may react to the summons to appear in Albufeira on July 1.
According to newspapers, court security will be ‘strongly reinforced’ for the trial which is believed to be centred on a number of fans who were not brought to trial previously.
