I think perhaps the gov't should introduce a mentor program for the fans. They should get a profile of a typical fan/hooligan and only allow those who fit the profile to matches as long as they are paired with another atypical fan. So if, say, most hooligan style fans are young men using football as an excuse to let loose than every male between the ages of 18 and 36 should not be allowed into a match unless accompanied by a woman at least 40 years old who they must sit beside. Give me five years and I'll volunteer to chaperone. Or maybe for every English game you travel to see live you must sit in a frilly living room drinking nothing stronger than tea and watch a game that doesn't involve England at all.

Perhaps the fear that others have of the fans (fear which is well founded, I'm not arguing that) adds fuel to the situation when it leads only to increased isolation. More thought, and creative thought, needs to be put into prevention, rather than retribution, and England does need to take responsibilty for the persistent illegal actions of its citizens abroad. I like the Dutch approach because it was aimed at preventing the vandalism before it started and tried to cut down on the momentum that mob activity develops.

Just so English Mudcat posters don't think that I only consider English fans awful I'll let you know that in Canada we have running debates about the acceptable and unacceptable levels of violence in Hockey. This led to the famous joke "Hey did you see what happened last night, I was watching a fight and a hockey game broke out!" In Canada a few years ago I watched hockey on television and was appalled at what the Canadian team did on the ice and what the Canadian commentators were saying about it. The team was frequently in flagrant violation of the rules and yet the commentators were complaining about the referee. At the same time as this was happening the local newspaper was running a three part series asking why young hockey players were showing less and less respect for the referees.

And then again look what the Belgian goalie just did to the Turkish player. Yikes!