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| May 31, 2002 | Friday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 18,1423 |
Japan told not to worry about fans
TOKYO, May 30: Japan can put aside fears of mass mayhem from as many as 8,000 England fans expected at the World Cup finals, a senior British policeman said on Thursday.
The supporters will be loud and exuberant by Japan’s decorous standards and there is bound to be some small-scale trouble, said Ron Hogg, assistant chief constable of the Durham police force in northern England.
But Hogg, who is heading what he called a substantial party of British police in Japan for the tournament, said he was confident the vast bulk of the fans would behave themselves.
“I don’t really see any danger of serious disorder out here,” he told reporters.
England supporters have a history of running amok at games in Europe and Britain has banned 1,072 known hooligans from travelling to Japan and co-host South Korea for the month-long competition which opens on Friday in Seoul.
As an extra precaution, Britain has passed on to the Japanese authorities the profiles of 324 others to be denied entry and recommended that a further 194 be subject to stringent immigration checks.
Hogg said that as of 6.00 a.m. on Thursday (2100 GMT Wednesday), Japan had turned back 10 England fans and was considering whether to deport 12 others.
British officials said six of the 10 had been deported as a result of intelligence supplied by Britain and four had been barred on other grounds.
With known troublemakers unlikely to make it to Japan, British police are more worried about a clash of cultures leading to misunderstandings and over-reactions by fans and police alike.
Many England fans drink heavily before and after a game and keep up a steady stream of chanting and abuse during it. Japanese fans form orderly queues to enter stadiums hours in advance and, polite to a fault, take their litter home with them.
He and other “spotters” will be on hand at the stadiums and in nightspots like Tokyo’s Roppongi entertainment district to advise Japanese police when England fans are just having a good time or risk getting rowdy.—Reuters
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