BRUSSELS -- The first world cup of the new millennium is to be staged in Japan and South Korea in the summer of 2002. Both countries want to use this billion-dollar sporting showpiece as a global shop window allowing those watching, both in the stadiums and on TV, to see the real Japan and the real South Korea. This is a laudable aim that can easily turn sour. The thrills, drama and excitement need to be restricted to the pitch rather than the streets around the stadium or the local bars.
After all, this was the same dream held by those hosting the World Cup in France in 1998 and Euro 2000 in Belgium and the Netherlands. These were shattered by disruption and violence on a scale that was not fully anticipated, with hundreds of hooligans, fueled by drink, acting out their xenophobia on the streets of Europe's soccer venues. They do it to parade and assert their national identity, and are often underpinned among the hard core by membership or, at least, inchoate support for, extreme-right and neofascist politics. They also do it because when abroad they can all too often get away with it. They are merely returned home rather than sent to jail.
In Marseilles, pitched battles between English fans and the local Tunisian population went on well into the night with the police helpless to do much. German fans ambushed and attacked a policeman with iron bars, leaving him brain damaged and permanently disabled.