Hamburg: Tens of thousands of ticketless fans will travel to next year's World Cup in Germany from England, the Netherlands and other countries with a reputation for trouble.
Beer drinking will be the number one pastime of many, the black market in tickets will flourish and vast public viewing areas will see fans of rival teams meeting unsegregated in huge numbers across the country.
It sounds like a recipe for the sort of hooliganism that blighted the World Cup in France in 1998 but representatives from fan groups are urging authorities not to fear the worst.
They believe trouble can be avoided at the June 9 to July 9 soccer tournament if police and organisers learn the lessons of the recent past.
"We're convinced that if we welcome people in Germany like guests and look after the needs of fans then you create a much more secure atmosphere," Michael Gabriel of the German KOS fan project told Reuters this week.
"This is not just a theory. We had good experiences in England in 1996 and in Portugal in 2004, when a positive atmosphere for the whole event was generated. We're telling the police not to be worried," says Gabriel.
Police union chief Konrad Freiberg has already warned that the resources are not in place to secure the thousands of public viewing sites that will go up across the country.
So what should the police do to ensure order? According to the fan experts meeting in Hamburg, Germany should copy the low-key policing that helped to ensure a trouble-free European Championship in Portugal last year, while an alcohol ban should not even be considered.
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