Anti-hooligan workshop ends in riot

A workshop set up by the Macedonian government to tackle violence by football fans broke up in chaos last night as the rivals fought over whose team had the better players.

A few gunshots were heard during the fighting at the end of the meeting in Ohrid, 90 miles southwest of Skopje, but no one was seriously hurt.

Dozens of fans were invited to the resort by the Youth and Sports Agency to meet for three days and discuss how to end violence between supporters of the country’s six main clubs.

But at the final dinner - where the gathering was to be declared a success - the fans got into a bitter argument about whose club had better players. It did not take long for punches to be thrown.

"They started fighting all of a sudden," said Stevo Vancov, 51, a waiter at the lakeside hotel. "I was amazed. There was glass flying all around."

Police detained about 30 of the most aggressive fans. Government officials refused to comment on the workshop, which was called Stop Violence.