Come ogni venerdi che si rispetti non potevano mancare le foto della gioventu' d'Albione, uscite e fate il vostro dovere

Iniziamo oggi un viaggio tra le tifoserie piu' calde che potrebbero trovarsi di fronte gli inglesi ai Mondiali:

If you want an idea of the extent of hooliganism in Poland in 2006, think back to England in 1986.

Back to the dark days when violence, fascism and racism were familiar presences at football grounds throughout the country.

Alarmingly, the Polish hooligans are starting to turn their attention to Germany and this summer's World Cup.

They want to test themselves against the elite of European hooliganism in a country that is only an hour's drive away.

There was a massive organised fight between German and Polish fans in woodland just outside Frankfurt last December.

German police arrived halfway through to break it up and thankfully no knives were used - just baseball bats - but there is a fear it was a warm-up for the real event this summer.

Last week I travelled to Poland to investigate the threat posed by Polish hooliganism for BBC Radio Five Live.

To learn about the issue first-hand, I met one of the hooligans in a bar in Krakow.

It was a dingy, intimidating place, with hardcore fascist, anti-semitic and white supremacist stickers covering the walls.

Yet although he was a skinhead, Martin was not a typical hooligan.

The 30-year-old was anti-racist, had a degree and spoke excellent English. He even went round the bar removing some of the offensive stickers.

Martin was a supporter of Cracovia, one of the oldest clubs in Poland, whose stadium is located only 500 yards from that of their great rivals, Wisla, in Krakow.

In fact, rivals is rather an understatement, as followers of the clubs have been engaged in something of a holy war.

In the last 12 months eight fans of the clubs have been stabbed to death near the stadiums.

Just two weeks ago a Wisla fan was dragged from his car and stabbed to death.

There will be 30,000 police at the World Cup, but Poland presents some very particular problems for the authorities.

As with the other new European states, Poland does not have the basis in law or the means to stop hooligans crossing into Germany.

Border controls have been relaxed since the country joined the European Union in 2004, meaning people can currently just walk across the border.

The German government does plan to introduce a system whereby people have to show a passport to cross the border, but as there is no database of hooligans in Poland, it will be difficult to know who to stop.

And the cost of living and accommodation in Poland is so cheap, there are also worries that fans from all over Europe will use it as a base.

Interestingly, I spoke to the president of Poland's top club, Legia Warsaw, who showed what can be done to combat hooliganism.

He explained that the club had recently been bought by a television channel.

The new owners became so sick of the club making the news for the wrong reasons that they asked them to clean up their act.

So the club monitored about 150 of their neo-Nazi supporters and eventually banned them from the stadium.

In protest, the rest of the supporters watched the next game from outside the stadium.

But after about four or five games they came back and seemed to accept the action of the club.

I appeared on a Five Live phone-in on Thursday to talk about the investigation and was accused by one caller of being alarmist.

That really is the last thing I want to do. But I do fear the German authorities face one hell of a battle to stop things getting very messy at the World Cup.

Middlesbrough fans travelled to Basel on Thursday for their Uefa Cup quarter-final, which they lost 2-0.

More than 1,200 visiting supporters were praised for their pre-match behaviour, but violence flared later when Boro fans breached barriers.

Earlier this month three Boro fans were stabbed during trouble in Italy.

Pepper spray

The man in custody, who has not yet been named, is from the Port Clarence area of Middlesbrough.

A spokesman for Cleveland Police said Middlesbrough fans crossed segregation lines in the stadium concourse and began fighting with local supporters shortly after the home side scored two goals in the space of three minutes.

Stewards wearing riot gear and armed with pepper spray were sent in and at least one suffered serious injuries.

Several fans were treated for the effects of pepper spray.

Earlier this month three Boro fans were stabbed and at least 10 others injured ahead of Middlesbrough's Uefa Cup clash against AS Roma

Residents in the picturesque hamlet of Iffezheim have opposed plans to build a giant camp for England supporters during the tournament in June and July. The hamlet in south-west Germany is 12 miles from Baden-Baden, the prosperous spa town where the England team will be based.

"It's a small place. The racecourse is 200 metres away from my front door. You can't just plonk 5,000 England fans there," Hans-Jürgen Eckert, a parish councillor opposed to the plan, told the Guardian yesterday.

The village has a population of 4,800. Some 100,000 England fans are expected to be in Germany this summer, most without tickets.

Organisers of the Iffezheim camp had promised fans they could watch England matches on a big screen, and enjoy a beer tent and discos. They have also proposed a football match with the locals.

"I feel I took a bit of a battering in Germany," Richard McCabe, the organiser of the proposed camp, said yesterday, after flying back to Britain from the meeting. "If England do well, Iffezheim could be put on the world map," Mr McCabe said. "But if it [the camp] doesn't happen, c'est la vie."

The council is due to vote on the proposal on April 10, when the mayor returns from holiday.