Many years ago Margaret Thatcher, then Prime Minister, was told by the late Ted Crocker, then secretary of the Football Association: 'Madam, we don't want your hooligans in our game.'

Sadly, Madam didn't listen. Even now, politicians tend not to listen when it comes to the subject of football hooliganism.

The hooligans are still with us, a product of society's failure to address the root causes of a problem that has ebbed and flowed, but never faded, over the past 30 years.

So, it comes as no surprise to me that Kevin Keegan's team could now face the ignominy of being sent home by UEFA if the recent scenes of violence involving England followers are repeated.

What it means, quite simply, is that the governing body of football in Europe have finally decided to come up with their own solution to a problem that successive British governments have failed to address properly.

The organisers and host nations of these big tournaments are clearly no longer prepared to have their citizens terrified and cities vandalised by mobs of young Englishmen.

I saw my first examples of serious football violence in the early Seventies and will never forget a shaken Bill Nicholson appealing to rioting Tottenham fans to behave during the 1974 UEFA Cup Final in Feyenoord's stadium in Rotterdam.

Since then I've seen England followers causing mayhem in Turin, Basle, Dusseldorf, Luxembourg, Rome, Sardinia, Marseille and, of course, Dublin, where the friendly match against the Republic of Ireland had to be abandoned after 27 minutes in 1995.

These, of course, were no more than skirmishes compared to the tragic events in Brussels in 1985 when 39 supporters died during the European Cup Final between Liverpool and Juventus.

As a result of that, Sir Bert Millichip, the FA chairman at the time, offered to withdraw English clubs from the three European competitions. His initiative was overtaken by UEFA's decision to suspend English clubs for five years.

There is a feeling in some quarters that the FA should offer to withdraw the England team from Euro 2000 and this would certainly shame this government's feeble efforts to halt the flow of hooligans to the Low Countries.

Such a move may also attract some sympathy from around Europe, but others might interpret it as an admission of guilt by the FA.

The fact is that they are not guilty of anything. They have worked diligently over the years to control this problem, because solving it is simply not within their scope.

The root of a problem that manifests itself at closing time in most of England's big cities these days can be traced back, in my opinion, to the erosion of family values and society's failure to teach children the difference between right and wrong.

Throw into the equation the liberal thinkers, a limp legal system and an indifferent government and you have all you need to guarantee rioting at football grounds deep into the future.

I have written about this subject so often in the last 30 years that it depresses me to think that I will probably be writing about it until I retire.

Nothing in all that time has changed, other than the fact that the football authorities have improved policing and security inside grounds to such a degree that violence during matches is now rare.

But the sport of football is simply incapable of solving the problems that exist outside grounds and that is why UEFA are now saying: No England, no violence.

What is, of course, particularly unfortunate about all this is the timing of it. A decision about who hosts the 2006 World Cup is due on 6 July and England's already slim chances of winning the vote have been sabotaged by this UEFA threat.

UEFA's block vote is promised to the Germans, who are probably the most influential voice in European football. They were seriously upset by the breaking of Millichip's 'gentleman's agree-ment' to support their bid in return for German support for England's bid for Euro 96.

Whatever the political machinations, nothing can excuse the behaviour of some England followers here over the last few days.

There are more important issues in life than the winning and losing of football matches and those involved in the game professionally sometimes lose sight of that fact.

It should not be forgotten that, if England draw with Romania tomorrow night, they will play Italy in the quarter-finals on Saturday.

Fifteen years after 39 people died watching Liverpool play Juventus, English and Italian fans are due to meet again in the same Heysel Stadium.