JUST as disappointing as Saturday's performance by England's footballers on the field was the performance off it by the "fans" in Zurich and Vaduz.

Durham's Assistant Chief Constable Ron Hogg, an expert on football policing, reports that a new generation of England "supporters" ran riot on foreign soil. Amazingly, it seems that this country has bred yet more young men who have no respect for anyone, who view all foreigners and foreign customs with contempt, who are aggressive by nature and who, despite plenty of weekends' practising, are unable to handle their alcohol.

We have not even educated them properly in basic maths. They were told months before kick-off that the stadium in Vaduz is the smallest international venue in the world holding just 4,000 people. They were told that England's 900-ticket allocation had sold out months in advance. They were told not to travel without a ticket.

And yet 1,700 England "supporters" turned up. Basic maths means that 800 travelled without tickets and with no hope of getting in. Why did they go?

The answer can only be to soak up the alcohol, and to get into a scrap.

They were successful. At one stage, 100 England "supporters" were hurling bottles and stones at police in Zurich - this is not a tiny minority.

Of course, there might have been mitigating factors. The local police do sound a little heavy-handed, and local yobs may well have been keen to provoke - one England "fan" was shot several times in the leg by someone who had violence on his mind when he left home laden with a gun.

But there can be no mitigation for taking part in a racially-motivated attack on a kebab shop in Zurich.

Yet the authorities have not helped. There were 25 arrests in Switzerland and ten in Liechtenstein, but no charges were pressed. All the "supporters" had a jolly good riot - with impunity. What incentive is there for them not to do it again in the future?

We are sure, though, that on Wednesday when England play Turkey in Sunderland - a game with an unpleasant potential in a city of worryingly racist undertones - North-East police will not be quite so easy-going.