How about a football holiday in Germany?

Just, bring your brass knuckles.

POLISH football fans intent on disrupting this summer’s World Cup with organised fights are planning to establish a “hooligan league” which will be headed by the most violent thugs.

The Polish fans, many of whom will be armed with knives, axes and 3ft truncheons, are preparing for battles with fans from rival countries, including England, throughout the five weeks of the tournament in Germany.

They say they will be seeking “pre-arranged fights” with travelling England fans because of their reputation as “the best of the worst”. One group of Polish hooligans has warned that if the English “ignore invitations to fight, they will be attacked anyway”.

The extent of the violence — often with fascist overtones — now commonplace in Polish football is understood by both German and British police. But little is known about the identities of many of the eastern European gangs who talk of turning Germany into a “battleground”.

The rise in football violence follows a wave of extreme right-wing and vehemently anti-semitic political discourse in the former communist country. Within the Polish parliament there are politicians who openly praise fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. Hard-core fascist and anti-semitic publications are sold on newsstands.

Rafal Pankowski, who organises Never Again, a Warsaw-based human rights group, said: “The level of violence and its links to fascist and racist groups is a great concern to us. We are very worried this will be exported to Germany for the World Cup.”

Polish hooligans interviewed about their plans boast that they will be able to slip across the border into Germany without being detected. They talk of night-time raids on the campsites where many of England’s 80,000 to 100,000 travelling supporters expect to stay.