Police powerless to prevent further trouble

Fans on the rampage in Copenhagen.

Britain's National Criminal Intelligence Service admit they are virtually powerless to prevent English football fans causing trouble at Euro 2000.

Fears of violence in Holland and Belgium this summer escalated following this week's clashes between Arsenal and Galatasaray fans ahead of the Uefa Cup final in Copenhagen.

And NCIS believe further trouble is inevitable, especially with the possibility of England and Turkey meeting in the quarter-finals of the competition.

NCIS share intelligence reports on known hooligans with police forces in the UK and abroad but say their efforts cannot be directed at anything more than an advisory level.

"We would never dream of telling another country's police force how to police a match in their country," said an NCIS spokesman.

"We are there to advise them and share our experience, offering criminal intelligence based on information we have."

Restrictions

The NCIS efforts have so far unearthed 111 known hooligans who now face travel restrictions, but the organisation admits they are just the tip of the iceberg.

"I'm afraid to say that we have fears wherever English fans go at club level and, more often, at international level," added the spokesman.

Hooliganism is making an unwanted return

NCIS spokesman

"We fear the English fans are going to cause trouble at Euro 2000 and I can guarantee that if there is trouble then English fans will be part of it.

"Hooliganism is making an unwanted return."

Tim Hollis is the senior police officer due to travel to Holland and Belgium in an advisory capacity but admits stamping out the epidemic of violence altogether is virtually impossible.

"If it was possible, we would have done it by now," he stressed.

"I am under no illusions of the demands we face this summer and Copenhagen has not made things any easier, but we will not be increasing our efforts simply because we were already giving 110 per cent."

I am under no illusions of the demands we face

Tim Hollis, senior police officer

The development of the pre-match skirmishes in Copenhagen prompted MEP Chris Heaton-Harris to call for England's clash with Germany to be switched from Charleroi to Brussels for security reasons.

England play two group matches in Charleroi, which has a large Turkish population.

But, with the Turkish squad based in Brussels, switching the venues is unlikely to ease the fear of violence.

The NCIS are also powerless to prevent fans travelling without tickets and, instead, have called on genuine fans to start revealing troublemakers in a bid to end the violence.

"We want fans to distance themselves from these yobs instead of going to their aid when there is trouble or apologising for them, simply because they are wearing the same shirt," added the spokesman.

"This would help us and would mean all fans would not be regarded as hooligans wherever they go."