LONDON, June 26 (Reuters) - Alec McGivan, the director of England's campaign to stage the 2006 World Cup, has questioned the motives behind UEFA's threat to expel England from Euro 2000 following incidents of hooliganism.

Writing in The Times newspaper on Monday, McGivan said the scenes of violence that marred the build-up to the match against Germany in Charleroi may have torpedoed England's bid to stage football's premier event.

But he accused European football's governing body of exaggerating the seriousness of the trouble in order to boost Germany's rival bid to host the tournament.

'The reaction of UEFA, European football's governing body, could not have been more unhelpful,' said McGivan.

'Its very public announcement that England would be thrown out of Euro 2000 if there was more trouble echoed around the world and, in my view, magnified the events out of all proportion.

'Private warnings would surely have sufficed. England's next match was against Romania and was hardly going to be of the same scale of risk as a match against Germany.

'Was such public posturing necessary? One could not help wondering if there was not a whiff of Byzantine politics here.

'The hardline members of UEFA have made no secret of their support for the German bid rather than England's, the result of deals made, we are told, over drinks in the smoke-filled rooms in Las Vegas seven years ago.'

McGivan admitted that the English authorities needed to take steps to stamp out hooliganism, but he said England were 'world leaders' in dealing with football-related violence.

'What happened in Charleroi was unacceptbale and I am not excusing it,' he added.

'As a nation we must come to terms with the measures that are necessary to expunge outbreaks of this nature, but I genuinely believe that the events in Charleroi have little relevance to a World Cup staged in England in 2006.

'The problems we have had in the past in this country have paradoxically made us the world leaders in crowd control and security.'

England and Germany are among five candidates to stage the 2006 World Cup finals. The three others are Brazil, South Africa and Morocco. The FIFA executive committee will vote on the hosts when they meet in Zurich on July 6.