For at least three days in June 2019 gangs of drunken English soccer ‘fans’ laid siege to the beautiful Portuguese city of Porto. Apparently, they were there for the Europa Cup but sport had nothing to do with their behaviour. All night they roamed the streets singing and chanting inane songs punctuated with God Save the Queen and Rule Britannia. Shirtless, tattooed, short back and sides and loafers were their uniform. Their days were spent drinking and littering the streets. The amount of rubbish they left behind was astounding; much of it plastic beer cups strewn everywhere and no doubt, washed by the rain that fell, into the Douro River and Atlantic Ocean.

Their disrespect for local people and culture cannot be measured. Guide signs to historic and religious monuments were defaced with soccer stickers, you know, ‘Liverpool are magic’, that kind of thing. Fights were common and the local police were on constant alert. A kind of medieval battle took place between the fans and the police in the city centre where large TV screens had been set up. I couldn’t leave them behind quickly enough. A local policeman told me that Portugal looked forward to changes in immigration laws when Britain left the European Union. During this time it was also reported in the world media that four men had bashed two young gay women on a bus in London for refusing to kiss each other in response to their demands.