Did anyone watch Panaroma "World Cup hooligans" ? Panorama carried out an undercover investigation into previously unreported English hooligan violence at World Cup 2006 The film follows England fans from Frankfurt to Gelsenkirchen and infiltrates groups of troublemakers. A record 170,000 England fans travelled to Germany for the cup and the majority were peaceful causing no problems. The worst rioting happened the day before the England vs Ecuador game.Thet attacked passers by and wrecked an Irish bar. Police believe rioters consumed or threw about 17 litres of beer each in Stuttgart and 400 England 'fans' were taken into preventative custody. The motto of World Cup 2006 was 'a time to make friends' but undercover cameras revealed England 'fans' 'mobbing up' and singing songs about World War Two which visibly shock German police officer For the first time in the history of the cup, British police officers were allowed to patrol the streets and airports of a the host country. England was the most represented country at the tournament apart from Germany. 3,500 known hooligans had been placed on a banned list and officers had powers to check for them. But the tournament attracted record numbers of people from England. Chief Superintendent Dave Lewis told Panorama that he believed operations to control organised violence were good. But he fears future problems with a new growing group of anti-social, drunk and volatile people associating with football. The film revealed a future generation of 'youth firms' of hooligans. One man who is a known international fixer of fights between different gangs expresses his disappointment that a bus was stopped from bringing what he calls a 'top firm' into a fight.
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