The dark cloud of violence and silver linings at Euro 2016

As Roy Keane pointed out the other day, the violence which has cast such a dark cloud over these European Championships is actually confined, as ever, to the proverbial tiny minority of the hundreds of thousands of fans who have come from all over the continent, and beyond, to enjoy the football, the fun, and all the good things that France has to offer.

But even at a safe distance from Group B and the mayhem involving a hard core of Russian and English fans as well as local self-styled ‘ultras’, it’s impossible to entirely escape the trouble.

Having dinner in a restaurant opposite my hotel in Versailles earlier this week, I couldn’t help eavesdropping on the conversation at an adjoining table of a trio of elderly Canadian ladies, one of whom took it upon herself to educate the others about the background to the ugly scenes they had been witnessing nightly on the television news.