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Security fears mount in Macedonia
13.33PM BST, 5 Sep 2003
Security fears are mounting in Skopje as England fans arrive in Macedonia ahead of tomorrow's Euro 2004 qualifier.
Hundreds of English supporters are set to make the trip to the Balkans, despite the Football Association's travel ban and pleas from the likes of Sven-Goran Eriksson for them to stay away.
Eriksson, who is "crossing his fingers that nothing stupid will happen" involving England fans, said on the eve of the match: "Some of our players, myself and the FA always said it is not a very good idea to come.
"I can do very little about it, I'm just crossing my fingers that nothing stupid will happen.
"It is always very good for players to have support - all players like that.
"We know we will not have any support - only from the bench. It is a new thing for me. We have to live with it.
"Hopefully it will not be that that decides if we win or lose the game."
The FA gave away their allocation of 2,500 tickets to under privileged local children in a bid to stave off the threat of crowd trouble.
But English fans are set to be in the 18,000-capacity Gradski Stadium as tickets for the match are openly on sale in Macedonia for around £100, more than ten times their original face value.
Some supporters believe that if they turn up alone or in pairs and not wearing England shirts they will be allowed to sit with the Macedonian fans.
And despite all the pre-match concerns, England captain David Beckham is hoping that any English fans who do get into the ground will behave themselves.
Beckham said: "I don't know whether they have ignored the warnings (about travelling) but they may have paid out a lot of money to come here. It costs a lot to watch England play.
"Hopefully the game will go off without trouble. It is a football game and people come to enjoy it.
"The message is to enjoy the game and concentrate on that. None of us want to see trouble.
"It is important for us as a country and a team. It affects the players when we hear and see things and it affects us as a nation.
"But the support we get from England fans is amazing. It is better than most countries get."
There is a massive police operation already underway in a bid to prevent any security problems.
England have been warned by European football's governing body Uefa that they face being kicked out of Euro 2004 if their fans are involved in any more ugly scences after trouble marred Eriksson's men's victory over Turkey earlier this year.
The Macedonian authorities are planning to show the match on a big screen in Skopje's main square so that England fans who do not get in to the ground will have somewhere to watch it.
The international co-ordinator of the Football Supporters' Federation Kevin Miles said: "We would advise England fans who don't get into the ground to watch it in bars rather than on the big screen, if only because of the locals' habit of firing guns in the air if they score a goal.
"There is more than enough bar space to absorb the England fans."
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