Gordon Farquar speaks to the FA's Sir Brian Hayes

Fans travelling with the national team are to be vetted more strictly before being given tickets.

The Football Association says 35,000 members of the official England supporters club will be checked for all convictions for violence or public order offences committed anywhere in the world.

Only people with football-related convictions were previously banned from joining the official club.

Passport for tickets: The members club card

The crackdown follows the FA receiving a fine for fan trouble in Sweden last September, and a warning from police that hooliganism is on the increase again.

The extra checks will come into effect during the next month as existing club members renew their applications for the next two years.

The BBC's Paul Newman: "Marked increase in arrests for football-related violence this season"

FA security consultant Sir Brian Hayes said: "We want to do everything we can to ensure that this minority cannot masquerade as decent fans under the banner of the England Members' Club."

The club is the only official way of getting tickets for away matches and gives members priority for home games.

These weapons were confiscated from football hooligans in the north-east

Sir Brian admitted that the FA was still relying on the honesty of applicants, since they have no legal right to investigate whether they are telling the truth.

But he warned that "in selected cases, where we think it's desirable" applicants may have to get a certificate from the police to back up their claims.

The announcement comes on the eve of the government unveiling their own package of new measures.

These are expected to go further, with powers to ban unconvicted hooligans from travelling to matches abroad simply on the word of a senior police officer.

Kate Hoey, Home Office minister responsible for football legislation, said: "It is important that everyone in football works together and plays their part in removing hooliganism from the game."

Hooligans return

The FA announcement follows a warning from the police's National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) that hooliganism is on the increase in the UK's domestic game again.

Det Supt Bryan Drew of the NCIS speaking on the One o'clock news

It says there has been an alarming number of incidents reported since the start of this season, and arrests for football-related violence have showed a "marked increase".

Bryan Drew, head of the NCIS Strategic and Specialist Intelligence Branch, admitted: "The signs are not encouraging."

It was hoped that trouble like this was history

Mr Drew said the hooliganism, unlike the "dark days" of the 1980s, was mostly taking place away from football grounds where closed circuit cameras watch fans.

But beyond the stadiums, those bent on trouble were "having a field day", he said.

"The numbers of people involved do remain comparatively small but it is a hard-core, well organised and hell-bent on causing mayhem."

Among the most serious incidents reported to NCIS were:

July: Glasgow Rangers v Shelbourne. Police baton charged 150 Rangers supporters who were trying to attack fans of the Irish club.

August: Norwich City v QPR: Twenty supporters from both sides involved in bottle throwing in a Norfolk pub. One person arrested.

September: Swindon Town v Oxford United: Nineteen people arrested during local derby.

September: Trouble flared between 200 Manchester United and Coventry City fans travelling on the same train to separate fixtures in London.

September: Norwich City v Birmingham City: Twenty Birmingham fans sprayed rival supporters with CS gas and attacked them with bar stools in a pub.

September: Millwall v Manchester City: Fourteen arrests following a game which was marred by abusive chants and foiled pitch invasions. Police dogs and horses used to disperse Millwall supporters.

October: Coventry supporters inflict serious head injuries in an unprovoked attack on a man at London's Euston railway station.

November: Major disorder on a train from London to Sheffield involving fans from Sheffield United, Chesterfield and Nottingham Forest including robberies and assaults on officers.