Hooligans threaten to end England’s run at Euro 2000

UEFA chief executive Gerhard Aigner made the threat after an extraordinary meeting convened by its president Lennart Johansson.

“UEFA will have to determine whether the presence of the English team in the tournament should be maintained should there be a repetition of similar incidents,” Aigner told a news conference. The European governing body also echoed earlier criticisms made by tournament director Alain Courtois.

Courtois charged that the British government had not done enough to prevent the scenes of violence in Brussels and Charleroi in the 24 hours preceding the match and further incidents in Brussels in the early hours on Sunday.

Johansson described the English hooligans as “a disgrace”.

He said the British government had not done enough to prevent them from travelling to the tournament.

“I think that the world expects us to take a stand for what has happened,” Johansson said.

“We cannot forget what happened in Heysel. We cannot ignore the incidents in Istanbul and Copenhagen, and specifically not what has happened in Charleroi and Brussels.

“There are thousands of hooligans being sent home and there are still a few remaining.” Johansson said.

However, England’s Football Association (FA) wants to discuss the matter with the UEFA. Some argue that the overt threat will give England’s opponents a second way of ousting the national side from the tournament — by provoking its fans on the streets.

Over 900 hooligans, most of them English, were arrested in Charleroi and Brussels before and after the Germany game which England won 1-0.

Chaos engulfed the main square in the town centre and water cannon and mounted police had to be brought in to bring the situation under control. Meanwhile, in Portugal, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said he hoped UEFA’s threat to boot England out the championship if there was more violence by its supporters would stop English hooligans in their tracks.

“Hopefully this threat will bring to their senses anyone tempted to continue this mindless thuggery,” Blair said in a statement.

In London, British home secretary Jack Straw said it had no “magic wand” to wave to get rid of hooligans.

He said the government had done everything in its power to contain football hooliganism, and urged fans still in Belgium to end their violent spree so as not to jeopardise England’s participation in the tournament.

Straw has been blamed for not removing the passports of the thugs running amok in Belgium, but he noted that many of the scores of fans deported from Belgium had no known record of violence and therefore could not have been banned in the first place.