Thatcher set to demand FA ban on games in Europe

The Prime Minister is expected to tell the FA chairman, Mr Bert Millichip, today that English football should pull out of Europe before it is thrown out.

The Government also hopes to push legislation designed to curb crowd violence through Parliament in the next few weeks.

With 38 people known to have died in Wednesday night's disaster at the Heysel Stadium in Brussels, the urgency of Mrs Thatcher's summons to the FA chairman was clear from the way she sent the British ambassador in Mexico City to interrupt Mr Millichip's trip with a touring English team and acquaint him with her wishes.

He later left for London and said before boarding the aircraft: 'We must consider taking action before anyone else does. And that could mean action at any level.'

Mr Millichip arrived in Mexico late on Wednesday with the general secretary of the FA, Mr Ted Croker. He said he had received a call from the ambassador, Sir Kenneth Graham, just after 6am yesterday with a request from Mrs Thatcher that he fly home immediately. He said that he and Mr Croker had decided to do so anyway after hearing of events in Brussels.

Mr Croker said that while many of the facts seemed to be known about Wednesday's fatal incident 'there might be more to the matter than meets the eye' in considering who was involved.

Officials of the controlling authority in Europe, UEFA, were pinning blame yesterday squarely on the English fans as it considered the possibility of banning English clubs from European matches. A three-man commission has already been set up to investigate and will report before the July 4 draw for next season's European competitions.

The team will be Mr Gunter Schneider, of West Germany, Mr Erik Hyldstrup, of Denmark, and Mr Da Silva Resende, of Portugal. Mr Schneider, the official UEFA observer at the Brussels match, said yesterday: 'Only the English fans were responsible. Of that there is no doubt.'

Mr Jacques Georges, the UEFA president, said: 'The committee will have to judge and they must be decisive. This is not a matter of football but humanity. We cannot tolerate the continuation of this apalling behaviour.'

The UEFA secretary, Mr Hans Bangeurter, said: 'My personal view is that, having written so often about this problem, having warned for so long, the only consequence now can be to suspend, definitely, the club involved. Whether there will be an extension I don't know. Theoretically, it could go as far as suspending the national team from European competitions.

'We have reached the stage now where football is at the crossroads. We cannot and are not willing to let this game be killed by irresponsible elements who have no place in football stadiums.'

He warned that sanctions would be 'extremely severe.'

The Belgian government is expected to announce today a ban on British - not just English - football teams from the country for an unspecified term. The Belgians have advised other European countries to do the same and London sources yesterday believed that some would accept the advice.

The British government is seeking urgent talks with political leaders so that legislation to curb crowd violence can be an agreed package.

Ministers want to have it on the statute book in time for the start of the new football season in August.

These measures will be aimed mainly at violence on British grounds. Ministers reluctantly accept that it will take rather longer to frame legislation which could deal effectively with behaviour abroad.

But one target for early action could be the cross-Channel ferries which carried many fans to Belgium this week and many others involved in earlier scenes of violence. There could be support for a ban on alcohol sales aboard for perhaps two or three days before matches.

The main focus of the package, though, is likely to be on action to stop alcohol sales at domestic matches and on the way to them on controls on the sales of tickets, possibly with the introduction of identity cards for supporters and on strict crowd segregation.

Some of the provisions in the planned bill were foreshadowed in the Government's white paper on public order published earlier this month. A bill based on that white paper is due next session.

But the Government is also likely to move next session to take extended powers to deal at home with offences committed abroad. This is already possible with some serious offences and crowd behaviour is now rated as belonging to that class.

Mrs Thatcher held a two-hour meeting yesterday morning with the Sports Minister, Mr Neil MacFarlane, the Home Office Minister of State, Mr Giles Shaw, and the Foreign Office Minister of State, Mr Richard Luce.

Afterwards. at an impromptu press conference in Downing Street, she said she had written to the Italian and Belgian prime ministers expressing 'horror and revulsion' at Wednesday's events and offering an initial contribution of pounds 250,000 to the Italian Disaster Fund. The Queen, she said, had sent messages to the Italian and Belgian heads of state.

Mrs Thatcher had also asked to see some of the football correspondents who were in the stadium during the riots - though many of them have already left for Mexico.

She said the country wanted to get offenders before the courts and given stiff sentences. But solid evidence was needed to do that. The use of television cameras to get 'total observation' of football crowds could be useful here, but she appealed to anyone who constructive ideas for dealing with crowd violence to put them forward.

The Prime Minister said her meeting with the FA to discuss domestic crowd trouble, timed for June 21, would be brought forward. She seemed to rule out the extension of the Popplewell Inquiery, called after the Bradford disaster, to cover the Brussels events. 'I think the Popplewell Inquiery is for matches held here on grounds here,' She said.

But later the Home Office announced that the inquiry's terms of reference would be adapted to admit evidence on events of the Heysel stadium.

There was no disposition in London yesterday to minimise the responsibility of British 'supporters' for the Brussels deaths. But there was criticism of some aspects of the organisation of the Brussels match, which was contrasted with the extremely successful handling of the earlier cup final in Rotterdam.

Mr Macfarlane had a long telephone conversation early yesterday with the Liverpool chairman, Mr John Smith, who is shortly to take over as head of the Sports Council. Mr Smith said in a radio interview yesterday that necessary precautions had not been taken in Brussels and the segregation of fans had been inadequate.

Alarmed by reports that segregation at the match might prove to be inadequate, Mr Macfarlane sent a Telex message at midday on Tuesday to Mr Bangeurter in Berne.

He said he was concerned at indications of counterfeit tickets circulating in Italy and that tickets would be available at the stadium on the day of the match.

He said he would welcome Mr Bangeurter's assurance that UEFA's rules and provisions drawn up by the Council of Europe in 1984 on crowd segregation would be vigorously implemented. No assurance - or reply of any kind - was received.

With the Commons in recess there was no immediate response among MPs to the news from Brussels, but a government statement is promised when Parliament resumes on Monday.

The SDP leader, Dr David Owen, and the Liberal leader, Mr David Steel, called on the FA yesterday to consider a ban on British teams playing abroad.

There were indications that some MPs would have welcomed an immediate and categorical government statement that no more British teams would play in Europe for a couple of years at least. Ministers, however, believe that this move would be impossible and that the Government is confined at least at first to acting through the FA.