UNIFORMED British police will be on patrol in Germany to help to stamp out hooliganism at the World Cup next year, it emerged yesterday as British officials and fans met their German counterparts in Berlin.

Although plainclothes police have long accompanied supporters to England games overseas, this is the first time that uniformed officers have been called in. “They will be a reference point for the English fans,” David Swift, the Deputy Chief Constable of Staffordshire Police, said.

The British police will not have powers of arrest, but will be able to identify trouble- makers to their German colleagues. British and German police forces regularly exchange intelligence.

Mr Swift said: “They will not be in direct conflict situations, but will be accompanying the fans to the games and will be present on the terraces.”

Britain was intent yesterday on convincing the Germans that the average England football fan is not the demonic figure he is often perceived to be. Destructive fans were being filtered out and subjected to banning orders.

David Bohannan, a Home Office official responsible for football security, said: “Court orders issued ahead of the World Cup games on 3,000 blacklisted fans will force them to surrender their passports.

“No one else in Europe has got quite this comprehensive monitoring in place.”

“It’s the Italians we have to watch out for,” said Max Eberhardt, of the Trautmann Foundation, a body set up under the patronage of Bernd (Bert) Trautmann, the legendary German-born Manchester City goalkeeper, who played in the 1956 FA Cup Final with a broken neck.

The foundation argues that the controversial World Cup Final at Wembley in 1966 between England and West Germany should not just be a source of argument — disputes rage still about the third England goal in the 4-2 win, scored by Geoff Hurst, and whether it crossed the line — but the beginning of a constructive dialogue, defusing tension from England-Germany games. In that spirit, the coveted Trautmann prize was awarded in Berlin yesterday to Uwe Seeler, a key German player in 1966.

“Neither the Dutch nor the Italians are having this intense conversation with us,” one German official said. “That’s why they could be more of a problem for us next year than the English.”

Nonetheless, the main peril, the football planners said, could be from frustrated German fans. In Berlin the hooligan scene is grouped around the former East German side, Dynamo. “Most won’t get tickets,” an official said, “and they will end up drinking in front of the big television screens and the betting is that they will want to pick a fight. I’m not sure that symbolic British bobbies in the stadiums will make any impact on this.”

Britain and Germany are plainly nervous that a bungled World Cup will sour relations — hence yesterday’s meeting at the British Embassy.

Gottrick Wewer, of the German Interior Ministry, said: “Billions of people will be watching the Cup. We have to do everything to make it work.”

Ray Whitworth, in charge of security at the Football Association, said that England always took a British police delegation to international matches, even if no trouble was expected. This, with careful screening of England fans, had helped to bring hooliganism under control.

German policemen, too, will be taking part in English fan projects before the World Cup to ease nervousness. Mr Bohannan said: “These are the biggest preparations that have ever been made ahead of a tournament. Some 60,000 to 70,000 England fans came to Portugal (for last year’s European championship) and we can expect at least that number coming to Germany.”

KEEPING THE PEACE IN 2006

Parallel events such as children’s football tournaments to keep fans occupied

German football roadshow in British schools, visits by German-born footballers

Football liaison officer to be stationed in British Embassy for next year

“Kick and think” academy sponsored by Trautmann Foundation for English and German fans

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