Violent fans need karma police

England fans caught up in football violence are only living up to their reputation, according to an academic report.

Social psychologist Dr Clifford Stott believes English supporters suffer a "self-fulfilling prophesy" of hooliganism when they travel abroad which enables the violent minority to influence those around them.

The majority of English fans are non-violent

Dr Clifford Stott

He has urged football authorities and police to adopt a fresh attitude to England fans to prevent violence at matches during Euro 2000.

Instead of aggressive policing and expecting violence, police should be more positive and allow England supporters to enjoy "the carnival of football", he said.

Friendly Scots

Dr Stott, of Abertay University in Dundee, believes England fans are no more violent than their Scottish counterparts, despite the Tartan Army's reputation as the world's best supporters and the England fans' reputation as some of the worst.

He said: "The perception of Scottish supporters is that they are the best-behaved in the world and people are welcoming to them."

Dr Clifford Stott: Fans' violent reputation makes them worse

"The knock-on effect of that is that it sets off conformity pressures that build up, letting them police themselves.

"We can set up the same kinds of pressures among the England supporters."

Dr Stott said there should be less focus on strict border controls and high-profile policing and more on making the England fans feel welcome when they go abroad.

He said hooligans were made to feel more important by the security arrangements in the run-up to matches.

Violence breeds violence

"When you expect violence from them you create a situation that creates the violence," he said.

"The majority of English fans are non-violent and have no intention of engaging in disorder but still find their civil liberties as European citizens denied them."

Foreigners prefer Scotland's Tartan Army to England fans.

He said England supporters were often blamed for violence when they were in fact victims.

He pointed to trouble in Turkey earlier this year and in Marseille during the 1998 World Cup.

In France, Dr Stott watched England supporters come under attack from local youths and forced to defend themselves, only to become the targets of riot police using CS gas.

His study of the England supporters' experience at France 98 is due to be published in the British Journal of Social Psychology.

It draws on research carried out by his group into other riots, including the poll tax riots in London and those in Toxteth and Brixton in the early 1980s.

"The same kind of issues are there," he said.

Dr Stott admitted it would be difficult to change attitudes, as the longer the stereotype of hooliganism continued, the greater the expectations of violence would become.

He said the nation's history was also a contributing factor to the aggressive welcome met in many countries.

"We have not been the most diplomatic of nations over the past few hundred years," he said.