In the eyes of the marketing men and the sponsors, the Champions League is a forerunner to a European super-league. With centrally sold broadcast rights, uniform kick-off times and transfer windows, it is a glimpse into the future of European football, much like the European Union is a precursor to what many in Brussels are advocating: a European super-state.

The problem with both is that we’re far from ready. While there is much bringing us together, there is lots tearing us apart. In the ‘real world’ it is things such as taxes, laws and language. In football, as seen on Tuesday night in Lens, it is — among other things — the “stadium experience”.

The expectations, mentality and behaviour of supporters and police differ. When you throw in uncomfortable cultural legacies — the threat of a Hillsborough-like disaster for Manchester United fans and 1980s-style English hooliganism for the French — you risk getting what we witnessed at the Félix-Bollaert Stadium.

English grounds were revolutionised after the Taylor Report. Terracing was abolished, as were barriers separating supporters from the pitch. At the same time, law enforcement learnt to rely on banning orders, video surveillance, intelligence and stewarding to preserve security. This, coupled with economic factors that saw primarily young, working-class people priced out of grounds, helped to eliminate hooliganism in English stadiums.

Yet while this was going on, the Continent — perhaps because most countries never experienced the horrors of a Hillsborough — acted differently. Aggressive policing and pitch-side barriers were seen as essential.

The Friuli Stadium in Italy, home to Serie A’s Udinese, removed barriers two years ago in an effort to introduce English-style policing. Despite their relative success, two weeks ago Udinese were ordered to put them back by Italian authorities as part of a crackdown on security after a policeman was murdered in a riot in Catania.

The differences do not end there. The trouble in Lens started when police ushered Manchester United supporters into the visiting fans’ enclosure. This is normal at many continental grounds, the idea that it is better to seat them elsewhere than lock them out and risk trouble. In England they would probably have been ejected.

And then there is the fact that travelling English fans today pay for the sins of past supporters in the 1970s and 1980s. Hooligan panic sets in when an English side plays abroad and heavy-handed policing tends to follow.

However much sponsors and Utopians would like to think European fans are a homogenous mass of willing consumers, there are striking differences. In that sense, perhaps the European Union and European football could learn something from each other.