The fight to calm fears of the 'English disease'

Patrick McMullan, who lives in London, has recently returned from a training session in Japan to be a steward at Saitama Stadium. He will be the only Briton acting as a pitch-side steward during the tournament and here he tells Standard Sport how the Japanese are preparing for a hooligan invasion

STEWARDS training for World Cup duty in Japan are given a simple message: "Don't square up to the fans and don't fight with the photographers."

The organiser, Mr Furukawa, gave his message at the start of a training course for volunteers at Saitama Stadium - where England play Sweden in their opening game on 2 June. He recalled how an Argentine journalist and a stadium steward brawled during last year's World Club Championship match between Boca Juniors and Bayern Munich when the reporter had reacted to the steward's request that he stop smoking.

Fighting and hooliganism is something of an obsession for the Japanese as the World Cup draws closer.

Prominently displayed amid a huge range of World Cup guides, magazines and videos in the Kinokuniya bookstore in Shinjuku is the book Hoolifan, written by Martin King.

The Japanese cover proclaims him as "England's No1 hooligan".

Japan's newspapers have been full of sensationalist tales of the 'English disease' that is about to be visited on the Japanese.

The country seems to be bracing itself for an invasion of 'Hoolifans' who, shaven-headed and bleary-eyed, will rampage throughout its ramshackle urban areas and country tracks, dodging specially-designed hooligan nets and riot police alike.

One pub in the popular youth area, Shibuya, boasts a World Cup cocktail menu with its headline drink being none other than the exquisitely mixed Hooligan.

The Japanese generally have a sense of curiosity towards foreigners and the scores of billboard pictures of England and Liverpool striker Michael Owen across Tokyo, where I worked as a teacher, reflect the country's interest in football but the information on the English fans may not be completely reliable.

A recent documentary, highlighting the negative side of England's support, interviewed 'prominent' hooligans in Britain and expounded the view that women were high on the list of reasons why people turned to violence - because they were constantly nagging English men.

The stadium's non-paid volunteers, all of whom went through a long application process, were shown a documentary to counter this image of the theatening English fan.

They were shown film of supporters who were boisterous yet harmless and the trainers said: "All volunteers, don't have no fear of English football fans and get along with them with confidence.

"If you have only to know that they are fond of drinking, roaring and making a fuss, you will be able to be on friendly terms with them heart to heart.

"So please don't square up to and just make yourselves reassured about them."

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