Russian, English, Slovakian and Croatian fans (and other fan groups) have been the talk of Euro 2016. They keep doing things like throwing chairs at each other, shooting flares onto the field during games, brawling in the stands and fighting with police. UEFA has been roundly criticized for not doing enough to prevent fan violence, and for good reason. It seems for every soccer story to come out of these games, there is a story about fans doing something horrible.
Meanwhile, in the Irish fan contingent:
Thank God for the Irish, who do revelry about as well as anyone. Two days after Russian fans attacked English fans in the stands, Irish fans sang "Dancing Queen" with the Swedes. The Irish, apparently, have realized that attending soccer matches is supposed to be fun, and sure, maybe to the other groups fighting is fun, but if they do that we would prefer they do it amongst themselves in the woods. Stop bothering the normal, non-fighting people.
Instead of engaging in sweaty, bloody, violent contests with other fans, the Irish are just here to sing to pretty ladies.
Some people like fights. Not me. Fighting hurts. Even if you win, your hands hurt. Your face hurts. Other parts of your body hurt. I agree with the Irish. Much better to sing a baby to sleep.
Irish fans have fixed cars, cleaned up, made friends and still had time to sing this baby a bed time song! #COYBIGhttps://t.co/77wroqyHbT
— Dave O'Grady (@DaveOGrady1) June 19, 2016
Those videos are all of Republic of Ireland fans, but we would be remiss if we didn't mention their neighbors to the north, who, instead of shooting off flares and/or brawling in the stands, have decided that singing Neil Diamond songs is the way to go.
If I never take another video in my life, in cool with that #GAWA pic.twitter.com/ukZjIwT6oW
— colin murray (@ColinMurray) June 16, 2016
More Neil Diamond. More Shaggy. More ABBA. Less fighting. Please.
Contact The18 Staff Writer Sam Klomhaus at Klomhaus@The18.com or follow him on Twitter @SamKlomhaus