The host nations of the next two World Cups are among those struggling to contain a rising tide of trouble on the terraces
In six months' time the World Cup will land in the home of joga bonito clad in a Fifa-approved wrapping of sun, sea and samba. But the dark side of the beautiful game in Brazil was in evidence earlier this month, when images of running battles between fans of Atlético Paranaense and Vasco da Gama shocked the watching world.
The game was being held at a neutral ground in Joinville due to previous clashes between fans of the two clubs, but within 10 minutes Globo was broadcasting close-up footage of supporters repeatedly stamping on the heads of their rivals and chasing one another around the stadium bowl.
Following a long interregnum, the fighting was eventually broken up by armed security firing rubber bullets into the crowds and an army helicopter landing on the pitch, but not before several fans were seriously injured.
Aldo Rebelo, the erratic Brazilian sports minister who is also battling to make sure the stadiums due to host the World Cup are ready on time amid a spate of deaths among construction workers, has promised a crackdown. "Whoever commits the kind of violence we saw should be detained forthwith. It constitutes attempted homicide," he said this week.
But while the brutal scenes may have been beamed around the world due to the game's proximity to the World Cup draw, this was no isolated example.
Four years after the World Cup comes to Brazil, Russia will host football's global showpiece. Last month, Spartak Moscow fans went on the rampage, resulting in 78 arrests and the imposition of tough new laws from next month.
Again, this was just one example among many as a toxic brew of nationalism, club loyalty, far-right ideology and alcohol explodes into violence on a regular basis. The country's leading sports newspaper, Sport Express, warned that if the violence was allowed to carry on unchecked it would mean "the end of football in our country".
In Russia, too, there are growing concerns about the endemic nature of football violence and its links to organised crime and right-wing groups. Those fears are replicated across much of eastern Europe, and to some observers are underpinned by a dangerous ideology.
"The big thing we've observed over the last two years has been the rise of the far right in football," says Piara Powar, executive director of the European anti-discrimination network Fare. "They've always had a significant hold over young people and young football fans. But it's become more organised and more frequent. More banners, more chants, more of a direct link." Banners pledging solidarity with the Greek far-right party Golden Dawn have been spotted throughout eastern Europe.
Scenes that became all too familiar in British football grounds in the 1970s and 1980s, with fans fighting one another across vast open terraces and the National Front openly using football grounds as recruitment centres, are being replicated across the continent - but on a more organised, criminalised basis.
It took all seater stadiums, the introduction of CCTV so sophisticated that any fan in the ground could easily be picked out, clubs getting banned from Europe and a wholesale change in football culture to rid the British game of what was once called "the English disease". Over recent years it appears to have been catching.
It is impossible to generalise as to the causes and symptoms across the world. The societal and cultural reasons why fans fight one another in Brazil, or ultras in Italy defend their reputation with such violent zeal, or why gangs of organised criminals use football as their backdrop in eastern Europe are all very different.
But in many cases there is an umbilical link between the most vociferous fans' groups, often with a predilection for violence, and those that run the clubs. In Brazil and Argentina, that manifests itself in clubs subsidising tickets for violent fans' groups. Sometimes, it's hard to tell who is in charge.
So too in Italy, where groups of Ultras revel in their ability to set the agenda at their clubs and demand they are listened to. A crackdown on racist chanting has been extended to so-called "regional" abuse, which in turn has led to a backlash with the Ultra groups trying to reassert what they see as their rights.
"We have a consumerist football culture here but overseas they live their football. That's quite interesting but has elements that are very unpleasant," says Powar. "We see a particular type of fan culture – a reversion to the ultras culture, a lifestyle for young people. This [the violence] is a perversion of that."
Kevin Miles, the chief executive of the Football Supporters' Federation, believes that the reputation of English fans forged in the 1970s and 1980s that long since stopped having any bearing to reality still lingers – with rival fans, and often police forces, reacting accordingly.
"The reputation is a lot easier to obtain than to get rid of. There is still a widespread perception in other countries that you can make a name for yourself by having a pop at the English," said Miles. "All English football fans want is to be policed according to their behaviour rather than their reputation. There's a responsibility on the part of the countries and the clubs hosting games to ensure visiting fans can enjoy their trip."
Police forces in some of those countries are increasingly looking to the British experience for clues as to how to deal with their own hooligan problem – it is no coincidence that the lists of Uefa security delegates are stuffed with English ex-policemen.
While there is no hard evidence that the problem is getting worse in continental Europe, with English fans habitually targeted in certain cities down the years, incidents are more visible than ever.
In one typical incident two Italians were jailed last month for their part in an unprovoked attack on Spurs fans in 2012, when Lazio and and Roma followers launched an unprovoked attack in a pub, brandishing knives, metal poles and knuckle dusters and leaving one stabbed fan seriously injured.
"English fans are far, far more likely to be the victims than the perpetrators. Clubs have become far more aware of the need to look after their fans travelling abroad," said Miles.
The frustration for supporters' groups, and for clubs themselves, is that there are certain destinations – Napoli and Rome being two – where trouble seems almost guaranteed, yet little progress seems to be made towards resolving the problem.
Complex, intractable issues demand a complex, multi-layered response. Across swathes of eastern Europe there are links between the owners of the clubs and their most violent fans. In many cases, they style themselves on an idealised image of English 1980s "firms" or Italian Ultras.
"The economic crisis, for sure, has made things worse. In many countries governance is shambolic. Many clubs are badly run and run by individuals who have made their money in dubious ways or have dubious political affiliations," says Powar.
After much pressure Uefa and Fifa have both vowed to get tough not only on crowd misbehaviour but on extremism and discrimination within stadiums. Stadium closures and heavy fines have been levied in recent months on both national associations and clubs for the misbehaviour of their fans.
Clubs in Germany, Italy, France, Netherlands, Scotland, Turkey, Cyprus, Russia, Poland and Romania have been sanctioned by Uefa this season alone. Fifa endlessly pledge "zero tolerance" and have begun to back up their words with actions.
Yet, even here, there is a delicate balance to be struck. Punish the majority of fans with stadium closures for what they see as the actions of a minority and the likelihood is that they will sympathise with the offenders and rail against what they see as unfair treatment from the authorities.
Meanwhile, from Moscow (where Spartak fans went on the rampage) to Minas Gerais (where homemade bombs were recently confiscated from fans) the governments that revelled in being chosen as the next two hosts of Fifa's flagship competition know they have work to do if their domestic travails with a hooligan tendency are not to overshadow their international moment in the sun.
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