4:32pm UK, Tuesday April 30, 2002

Football fans worried about being confused with English hooligans at the World Cup will be able to don special T-shirts to stop them being at the receiving end of a policeman's baton.

"I am Not a Hooligan" read the shirts with the "Not" written in red and inserted into the logo like a correction.

sp i'm not a hooligan t shirt

The shirt says it

Underneath is the same statement in Japanese, once in standard Japanese and again in the Osaka dialect.

The shirts have gone on sale in Osaka and Japanese football fans hope they will stop innocent supporters getting caught up in violence.

Braced for violence

Koichi Takeuchi, chairman of the Osaka fan group, which made the shirts, said: "Even more than that, it's a bit of sarcasm aimed at the people who just look at people and think they might be hooligans."

Police in Japan and South Korea are braced for violence.

They will be hoping to head off a repeat of the fighting in Charleroi, Belgium, in Euro 2000, where England fans ran riot.

Police have been undergoing extensive training and have put on several impressive public displays of what troublemakers can expect if they step out of line.