SA police issue hooligan warning

The man in charge of policing next year's World Cup in South Africa says his force will have a zero tolerance policy when it come to hooliganism.

Recent England matches have been largely trouble free but this year's Carling Cup has seen cases of violence.

Police chief Vishnu Naidoo said: "We will know long in advance if people have any intention of behaving badly.

"And in the unlikely event they do, they will be put in a place where they will have every regret."

"Perhaps, that might set such an example for them that they might even go back home and not behave in that manner again."

Following 945 arrests in the European Championship in 2000, police took steps to ensure that recognised hooligans from England did not travel to the World Cup in 2006.

They issued 3,300 Football Banning Orders which prevented them leaving the country and as a result the World Cup in Germany passed off without much incident.

But recent violence at Carling Cup games has brought the issue back to public attention.

In August, one man was stabbed in the chest before a Carling Cup tie between West Ham and Millwall while the match was delayed because of three separate pitch invasions.

Trouble also flared at Barnsley's Carling Cup tie against Manchester United last month where nine people were arrested.

The Football Association were quick to condemn the violence and said after the West Ham game it would not damage their bid to win the 2018 World Cup so long as it was a "one-off".

South Africa has been well aware it needs to ensure safety for all fans next year as the world's biggest football showpiece is hosted on African soil for the first time.

But senior superintendent of the South African Police Naidoo said his message was clear.

"If [people] come and start trouble they will learn a very difficult way in which they will be dealt with in South Africa," he said.

"We've procured equipment for crowd management purposes like water cannons and body armour and we are not going to allow a few individuals ruin a fantastic tournament for the many hundreds of thousands of people.

"We, in South Africa, are convinced that we are not going to be plagued by this type of behaviour."

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