British police wary of fake England fans
Reuters - Monday 11 June 2012, 12:11
The head of the uniformed
British police officer squad travelling with England fans at
Euro 2012 has said their main concern is that innocent
supporters could be accused of trouble caused by foreigners
wearing England kits.
Assistant Chief Constable Andy Holt told reporters before
the team's opening match against France that fans dressing in
England kit made their job harder.
One of the reasons is that the worldwide popularity of the
English Premier League has created a generation of fans who
support top English clubs as well as their own local teams and
many people from neighbouring Russia are expected in Ukraine to
cheer on England over the next two weeks.
"We have seen quite a lot of Russians with England shirts on
- that's great if they are supporting England of course," Holt
said.
"But if there is some disorder and it appears they are
wearing an England shirt, I want my officers to go in there and
establish what we're dealing with so we've got it first hand, so
we know whether it's an English fan and we have a problem or
whether actually it's somebody from another nation who supports
another team who just happens to have an England shirt on.
Holt said that there was usually very little problem with
England fans nowadays.
"We have worked very hard to make sure that England fans are
policed appropriately and if England fans do engage in disorder
that we know about it and are able to deal with that." he said.
"But what I don't want is to have England fans mislabelled,
and misidentified because it's some other nationality wearing
England shirts so you can imagine we will be very careful to
ensure that if there is any problems, we identify the provenance
of who we are dealing with."
Around 5,000 England fans are expected to attend England's
three group stage matches against France and Ukraine in Donetsk
and Sweden in Kiev and they are being marshalled by uniformed
British officers, who, Holt says, have built up a very good
working relationship with them.
Twelve police officers are in Donetsk for Monday's match
with four others working as spotters in Poland and generally the
relationship between fans and police is vastly different from
the days when England supporters were responsible for widespread
hooliganism across Europe.
"Perhaps 20 years ago the fans who caused problems were very
wary of the police, because they knew we were gathering evidence
on them, going back to the UK, and getting football banning
orders on them," Holt said.
"Now we get a warm and cordial welcome from our fans
abroad, they see us as a re-assuring presence. Fans must be
judged on their behaviour today and not the old reputation of
the past."