TOKYO British experts on soccer hooliganism warned Japan on Friday to keep a close guard on hard-core troublemakers at next year's World Cup while avoiding a heavy-handed approach that would spoil the fun for real fans.

Japan, which will be co-hosting the 2002 World Cup along with South Korea, may need all the advice it can get, especially if officials' worst fears of an invasion of hooligans come true next summer.

Drunken hooligans taking to the streets and rioting is a scarcely imaginable scene in Japan, where soccer fans regularly stay behind after matches to clean up rubbish.

But British experts at a conference in Tokyo stressed that the biggest security challenge lay in blocking the small minority of troublemakers, while ensuring that overzealous policing didn't spoil the fun for the rest.

"Fences and heavy-handed policing provoke the fans," said Keir Radnedge, a soccer journalist who has been a consultant to organizers of past World Cups and other international soccer tournaments.

"Treat them with respect ... and that way, visiting fans will bring you not only their dollars, pounds, pesos and francs, but they will also provide you with a wonderful social, cultural and sporting experience."

Radnedge added that officials would need to keep a close eye on movements of fans between match days and also exercise its right to ban individual troublemakers from entering the country in coordination with South Korea.

"Japan has the right to ban certain people from entering the country. They should do so through coordination with South Korea and other countries from where hooligans may come," he told the symposium, which was attended by World Cup organizers, police and other public officials.

(Reuter)