Euroscene: Hooligans of the world, unite, and come to Germany for this summer's World Cup. That was the sense of a gathering last month in Braunau, the Austrian town perhaps best known as the birthplace of Adolf Hitler.
According to Rome daily La Repubblica, more than 70 right wing "fans" from Bayern Munich, Schalke 04, Olympique Marseilles, AS Roma, Lazio, Chelsea, Real Madrid and other clubs gathered in the snow-covered surrounds of a timber yard to drink beer and make "plans" for this summer's finals.
Needless to say, the plans are a bit hazy but the basic intent is to cause as much "bother" as possible, striking at police, rival fans and whoever else may come across their path and doing so in the name of an ill-defined neo-Nazism.
The gathering in Braunau last month may sound more like a boozy weekend than serious battle plans for Germany. That could well be but what is certain is that German police authorities are seriously concerned.
Germany's interior minister Wolfgang Schauble last month said his government would suspend the Schengen travel agreement for the duration of the competition to effect thorough border checks.
There was a time when such concerns focused almost exclusively on England fans. Yet, as recent events in France, Italy and Spain underline, the hooliganism problem long ago moved onto mainland Europe. A couple of weeks ago, Barcelona's Cameroon striker Samuel Eto'o was subjected to racist abuse during a league game against Santander.
Last January, during a Serie A game between Roma and Livorno, right-wing militants displayed swastikas, neo-Nazi symbols, pictures of fascist dictator Benito Mussolini and various vulgar anti-Semitic banners.
In France, Paris Saint-Germain chairman Pierre Blayau recently claimed his club had been "taken hostage" by rival groups of supporters who, seemingly, prefer to fight one another rather than supporters of other teams.
But Thomas Model, the Hamburg police official in charge of security during the tournament, says his biggest problem concerns a lack of information about the large numbers of Eastern European fans due to travel to Germany.
The German authorities have taken a variety of measures to contain their own domestic hooligans, registering more than 9,500 of them mainly from the former East Germany. Britain, the Netherlands and Germany have long shared information on their respective scenes. Yet, there is little or no information about fans arriving from Croatia, the Czech Republic, Poland and Ukraine, all countries whose domestic league scene has been marred by recurrent fan violence.
With more than one million fans expected to travel to Germany, many without tickets, problems could focus on the big-screen, public viewing sites. Italian and British police will be on hand to help out the estimated 250,000 strong German police force overseeing the tournament. Yet, will they contain the 300,000 Poles expected to travel to Germany, primarily because Poland has not acquired any TV rights to the games? The vast majority of the Poles are peaceful, football-loving fans but how large is the violent minority bent on "bother"?
What do we make of reports in German daily Der Tagesspiegel last month, claiming that German far-rightists and neo-Nazis intend to stage five demonstrations during the tournament, aimed at expressing solidarity with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the man who caused international outrage last year when denying the Holocaust and calling for the destruction of Israel?
The German authorities say they are ready and waiting. Let us hope so. Otherwise, it could be a long, hot German summer.
