This is vile, reprehensible behaviour.

It is one thing to pick a fight with someone who is as eager as you are to partake in a skirmish. It is not OK or lawful, but at least you and your foe are getting what you deserve in terms of harm or injury. It is someway towards an equal fight.

What is far beyond the pale and utterly sickening is to sucker punch at an innocent by-stander; an older man who is holding a shopping bag and pleading for calm. If you do that, you are the lowest of the low. You are not a combatant, you are a cowardly weasel.

Sadly, that is exactly what happened in France on Saturday, as a local Marseille man of senior years was filmed being knocked unconscious by a vile dickhead masquerading as a fan of the England national team.

The elderly gentleman was clearly pleading for peace, but the chickenshit who carried out the assault smashed him in the face from a running start and left him unconscious. The coward then ran away to the back of a crowd.

Such was the disgusting nature of the attack that a fellow fan tried to grab the perpetrator and admonish him, but he got away. Of all the footage we've seen of the violence in France since the start of the Euros, this has left us feeling completely sickened and ashamed.

This was just one of a number of serious and terribly violent scenes before the game in Marseille.

GRAPHIC: Brutal footage shows Russian fans kicking grounded English supporters in the heads https://t.co/40TfW2dHs6 — SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) June 11, 2016

And sadly the trouble continued after the 1-1 draw between England and Russia as Russian fans stormed across the flimsy segregation in the Stade Velodrome, leading to some hugely distressing scenes.