BLAIR: HOOLIGANS SHAME THE NATION

By Nick Allen and Tim Moynihan, PA News, in Portugal

Tony Blair today condemned the hooligans behind violence in Portugal saying they "bring shame on our country and on the vast majority of England football fans who just want to enjoy the game".

The Prime Minister hit out in the Commons after tournament organiser Uefa warned it may take action against England if the disturbances spread to matches.

Uefa said the trouble on the Algarve was regarded as unrelated to the tournament but said that position would change if the violence spread.

A spokesman said: "It is not being viewed as football hooliganism by Uefa. However, if it changes - and we hope it doesn't - and there is trouble around a stadium or around an England match that position could change and we would have to review it."

David Swift, the senior British officer advising the Portuguese during Euro 2004, said there was no connection between the "yobs" involved in the violence on the Algarve and the football tournament.

He told reporters at a briefing in Lisbon: "What we have is English yobs getting drunk and disgracing the country.

But he stressed: "The connection with the game is non-existent."

He was speaking after 33 English fans were arrested during a second night of violence in the resort of Albufeira.

Twelve other English fans were appearing in court in the town today charged after violence erupted on Monday night.

Mr Swift, who is deputy chief constable of Staffordshire, said last night's violence involved around 250 English people and had "racist overtones".

"There was a flashpoint, as there always is. The escalation started with two bars, and baying antagonism between their occupants, across the road, with all the people involved English.

"The baying got even more yobbish. Then you have a catalytic event, when a Portuguese bar owner tries to take some action to protect himself and his property, and then that individual is attacked.

"So there is a Portuguese individual in a crowd of 250 yobbish English people, and the police respond."

Mr Swift revealed that of the 12 English people arrested on the first night of violence three had previous convictions recorded against them.

The most serious conviction was for assault causing actual bodily harm in 1992. Another was football-related and involved a drunken attempt to enter a sports stadium.

But he urged reporters to remember the context.

"We are talking about a piece of geography that amounts to little more than 100 metres, and involves no more than 250 people."

Pressed further on any link between the violence and the football, he said: "My fear was we would have background level public disorder throughout the tournament.

"My disappointment was that the scale of what we saw last night was serious."

But he did not see any reason why there should be trouble at tomorrow's game between England and Switzerland in the small university town of Coimbra.

"I still have my vision of how 40,000 English people attended the first game in Lisbon, and it was like the Commonwealth Games in Manchester."

Portuguese police spokesman Captain Manuel Jorge said last night's violence "happened at the same time and the same place as the night before.

"There were about 300 of them. They were singing, and some of them were racist to some black people who were there.

"At around 2am they began throwing bottles and glasses into the road. They were also throwing tables and chairs at the police.

"We had to use horses and dogs to bring the situation under control, and we had to order the closure of other bars in the area and evacuate the people from them."

The 12 England fans arrested following the first night of violent clashes were led into court in handcuffs today.

One of the 12 said "I'm innocent" as he was led into the courthouse in Albufeira.

One of the men was wearing shorts covered in bloodstains and had his arm in a cast.

Last night's trouble again centred around the town's main strip of bars - around the La Bamba bar - and at its height saw officers charging into fans, who scattered before regrouping to taunt them.

The violence wrecked the good image of England fans who had been praised by local police for their behaviour after their team's defeat by France on Sunday.

British officials have stressed that the offences were not organised football violence.

But the father of a 10-year-old boy injured in the trouble on the first night branded the England fans "animals" and called for them to be thrown out of the country.

Court officials named the men in court today, but full addresses and ages for some of them were not available.

The officials also said they did not have the exact English spellings of some of the names and addresses.

They were named as John Parkes; David Peter Jackson, 29; Gary Norman Mann, 46, of Birmingham; John Jackson, 22, from Newcastle; Ricky Tsigarides, 23, from Cheshunt, Herts; Daniel Marsh, 20, from Springfield Crescent, Barnsley; Paul Donahue, 21, from Heath Road, Manchester; Joe Nicholls, 24, from Aldershot, Hants; Andrew Williams, 21, from Cuckfield, Burgess Hill, Sussex; Jack Ashdown Habbs, 19, from Beckley, Oxford; Jason Boyle, 22, from Peter Wood Gardens, Stretford, Manchester; Peter Barmick, 37, from Eastleigh, Thornaby, Middlesbrough.

The mother of one said he was a "quiet lad".

Margaret Jackson, of Isabella Walk, Throckley, Newcastle upon Tyne, said her son John, 22, flew out to Portugal on Friday with a group of friends.

She did not know if he had tickets for any of the games.

She said her son was a Newcastle United fan who "worked in computers" and lived with her.

She added: "I haven't heard anything.

"He's a very quiet lad. He's not the sort of person to get involved in trouble.

"He's never been in trouble before. I'm really worried now.

"He goes to work every day and goes out at weekends and he's saved up for this holiday."

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