World Cup: UK fans warned over Argentinian gangs at Brazil games
Britain's police lead on football says Brazilian counterparts are concerned about potential clashes 'given shared history'
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It is expected that thousands of England supporters will make the expensive trip to Brazil. Photograph: Shaun Botterill /Fifa via Getty Images
British police chiefs are concerned that violent Argentinian gangs are planning to travel to Brazil and target England fans during next month'sWorld Cup.
Britain's police lead on football, deputy chief constable Andy Holt, said he had been warned by his counterparts in Brazil that an unknown number of Argentinian troublemakers would cross the border during the tournament, leading to concerns about potential clashes with England supporters "given our shared history".
Holt said the prospect of Argentinian hooligans circumventing police by crossing the vast border with Brazil had "caused me some concern" given the simmering tensions still surrounding the Falklands Islands war in 1982.
"I still think that could generate some issues for us," he said. "Certainly it was a concern raised to us by the Brazilian authorities when we were out there that, given the shared history we thought that would not be a confrontation we would welcome and we will do all we can to avoid it."
At a briefing in London three weeks ahead of the opening World Cup match in Sao Paolo, police chiefs set out their strategy for preventing disorder at the tournament in what they hope will be a repeat of the successful operation in Poland and Ukraine for Euro 2012.
It is expected that "thousands, rather than tens of thousands" of England supporters will make the expensive trip to Brazil, compared to around 10,000 who flew to South Africa for the 2010 World Cup. While authorities in Brazil are alert to the prospect of a small minority of troublemakers among the England fans, the greatest potential for football-related disorder is at home in Britain.
Forces across England have been warned to brace themselves for a potential surge in reports of domestic violence and also advised them to monitor areas with large Polish or Italian communities.
Holt said police in Boston, Lincolnshire, were caught out at the last World Cup when a large group of Poland fans descended on a pub and started "getting rather boisterous". In advice to every force in England, Holt urged officers to "be aware of which communities are in your area and those that are in the World Cup might need a level of policing".
A team of six uniformed officers will fly out to Brazil next month led for the first time by a woman, chief superintendent Rachel Barber of South Yorkshire police. The number of officers travelling to Brazil is half the delegation that went to South Africa in 2010 and Poland-Ukraine in 2012, due to the smaller number of travelling England supporters.
Some 2,377 England fans with football banning orders will soon be ordered to surrender their passport and those travelling to Brazil are warned to expect the full force of the local military police – and the notorious prison conditions – if they misbehave.
"I don't think the Brazilians are fully signed up to the Peelian principles of policing with consent. It's a more paramilitary style of policing and it's the military police who will be in charge of policing at the arenas," said Holt. He said Brazilian authorities were "very very aware of their reputation" for unsparing policing and that they were under even more scrutiny given Brazil's summer Olympics in 2016.
The potential for disorder in Brazil has heightened in recent weeks with a string of violent demonstrations across the country by protestors angry at the exorbitant cost of hosting the tournament. Holt said a number of measures were being put in place to separate travelling England supporters from any unrest, including the Football Supporters' Federation's text message system that will advise fans to avoid certain routes or to set off earlier.
"We can't say we will ensure no England fans get caught up in the protests ... but our job is to make sure we do all we can to help [supporters] to stay clear wherever possible," he said. Holt added that he had urged Brazilian police to judge England fans on their current behaviour, not on the thuggish hooligans of 20 or 30 years ago.
The six British officers will also be on hand for providing "cultural context" – advising their local colleagues about the line between England fans' boisterious behaviour and potential criminal disorder. "Because of the cost and difficulty [in travelling to Brazil] it will be a very small minority who might have something to drink and be tempted to engage in inappropriate behaviour," he said.
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