England's players and fans face the threat of racial abuse in Ukraine this summer, according to this country's senior police officer in charge of footballing matters.

Andy Holt, assistant Chief Constable of South Yorkshire, said Ukraine are 'not as advanced in anti-racism initiatives as we are' and fears racist abuse could be an issue at Euro 2012.

However, he believes an expected low turnout of fans will mean, overall, the tournament should pass with relatively few problems.

Venue: Ukraine are 'not as advanced in anti-racism initiatives as we are', according to Holt

'There is a 9,000-ticket allocation for England in the group stages but at the moment we think 3,000 (travelling fans) is about as many as we are going to get,' he said.

There appears not to have been any Roy Hodgson 'bounce' in the numbers wishing to go so far, with the figure already depressed by England's initial matches taking place in Donetsk and Kiev, where comfortable accommodation is expensive and travel difficult.

There will be 24 British police officers travelling, 18 of them to Ukraine and six to co-hosts Poland, to try to head off what Holt sees as two potential areas of trouble.

This amounts to the largely unwarranted reputation of English supporters and possible responses to that, plus the fairly unreconstructed nature of hooliganism in Ukraine.

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