A senior British police officer and leading official of the English FA last night welcomed the French decision not to erect perimeter fencing inside the Municipal Stadium for next Monday's World Cup match between England and Romania in Toulouse.
At a press conference organised by the British Consulate in the city, the FA deputy chief executive, Ms Pat Smith, said while there had been widespread disturbances outside the stadium in Marseille earlier this week, the atmosphere inside the ground had been good.
"Obviously we are happy that those fans who do travel with the intention of watching the football and enjoying themselves will not be forced to sit behind fences on Monday."
South Yorkshire's deputy chief constable, Mr Tim Hollis, also welcomed the decision, which was taken yesterday afternoon by Toulouse prefect Mr Alain Bidou, but warned a repeat of last weekend's trouble in Marseille remains a possibility as large numbers of ticketless fans arrive in coming days.
"That's simply something that the French have to deal with here because, as I keep having to point out to people, the British police have to operate within current legislation and the fact is that as the law stands now we have no right to prevent a person leaving Britain on the basis that we suspect they may cause trouble in another country," he said.
Around 10,000 English supporters are expected to travel to Toulouse over the next two days. Ms Smith said she hoped the ground's much smaller capacity than Marseille, 34,600 compared to 56,000, would make tickets far harder to come by which, in turn, would discourage people from travelling.
"A far higher proportion of the people at this game will have received their tickets through official channels," she said. "The FA received 3,300, another 2,000 were sold in England through official tour operators and, perhaps, another couple of thousand English people will have sponsors' tickets. It is the people who travel hoping to get a ticket, or worse still, have another agenda entirely, who pose the threat."
Up to last night there was little evidence of the impending invasion, but the city's bars and restaurants were already under orders to close their doors at 11 p.m.
