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MANCHESTER: Hooliganism was causing a “huge image problem” for European Championship co-host Poland and every round of league matches was marred by trouble, a UEFA executive said on Wednesday.
Ahead of the influx of football fans in the country next year, the Polish authorities have vowed to adopt a zero tolerance toward hooliganism.
But the ongoing struggle to eradicate violence among Polish fans was highlighted on Friday when 60 were arrested after clashing with police in Lithuania around a friendly.
“We are looking very carefully at the situation because there are many activities on the hooligan scene in Poland,” UEFA's Euro 2012 operations director Martin Kallen told the SoccerEx conference on Wednesday.
“What we saw at last Friday's match was not a very good picture to see that happening in a stadium.”
Poland, which is co-hosting the tournament with Ukraine, has announced plans to use fast-track trials by video linkup during the tournament. Fans also have to be part of a central database in order to buy tickets, to try to deny potential troublemakers.
“On the hooligan side we are concerned but I also know the Polish government is concerned,” Kallen said.
“They know they have a problem they have a huge image problem. There are always hooligans around every match day in the league but the government is making the right steps for the future.”
Marcin Herra, the head of the Polish organizing committee, said the “minority cannot spoil the event for the majority.”
“The new legislation allows us to work much more precisely against those hooligans,” Herra said.
“There will be zero tolerance to make sure that 500 people cannot spoil the event for one million people.”
Kallen doesn't expect the same troublesome supporters who disrupt Polish league matches to make it into Euro 2012 stadiums.
“Different people will be coming to matches there will be more families,” he said.
“The Euro is a party and in many areas there is more a problem on a daily basis for club matches.”
Kallen also told the Manchester conference that some of the pledges made by Poland and Ukraine about infrastructure developments would not be kept. With many new motorways and roads not ready, fans will have to take diversions to reach venues.
