Hooliganism 'likely' at World Cup

Britain's National Criminal Intelligence Service today warned it would be ‘‘naive’’ to expect a hooliganism-free World Cup.

Thousands of England fans will be in Japan next month to cheer on Sven-Goran Eriksson’s men, but police fear a repeat of the France 98 rioting in Marseille and Euro 2000 violence in Charleroi.

Around 900 Millwall thugs left almost 50 police injured in a 70-minute battle after their play-off defeat against Birmingham on Thursday night and NCIS admitted similar confrontations could occur at the World Cup.

NCIS spokesman Mark Steels said: ‘‘There are 1,000 fans banned from going - they must hand in their passports - but it would be naive to say there won’t be any problems. It would take a brave man to say there wouldn’t be problems wherever football fans go.

‘‘We’re doing a lot of work with the Japanese and the Koreans ahead of the tournament.’’

Steels confirmed football violence is becoming more frequent, adding: ‘‘Hooliganism has never gone away, but recent incidents have seen fewer numbers. We haven’t seen numbers like at Millwall for 10 or 15 years.

‘‘Just under a year ago, we said violence was on the increase and nothing has happened this year to stop that. It’s still a minute percentage, but it is a steady increase.

‘‘It’s nothing like the numbers we saw in the 1970s, but there is still a very violent bunch of people.’’

Birmingham manager Steve Bruce added: ‘‘We were saddened and disappointed by what happened at Millwall, as it tarnishes the game. We thought we’d seen the back of scenes like that.’’