Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Football fans banned from leaving UK

Monday 04 June 2001 19:00 EDT

Hundreds of suspected football hooligans have been ordered to hand in their passports in an attempt to stop any trouble at tomorrow's World Cup match between England and Greece

More than 450 people have been banned from leaving the country in the first use of new powers under the Football Disorder Act which was introduced after trouble involving hooligans at Euro 2000.

A Home Office spokeswoman said: "Under the Football Disorder Act 2000, over 450 individuals subject to the banning orders will be prevented from travelling to Greece. This comes into force five days before the match takes place.

"There hasn't been any significant disorder involving England fans since Euro 2000 last August, but the police will now look closely at this."

Many England fans have already arrived in Athens fr the match, but there have been no reports of any clashes.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in