Manchester United vs Feyenoord to have large police presence due to hooliganism fears at Old Trafford

OLD TRAFFORD will see one of the largest police presences in its history ahead of Man United’s Europa League clash with Feyenoord.

Hundreds of officers will be stationed around the stadium and city centre on the day of the game.

The Dutch side have been allocated 3,100 tickets but a malfunction on Man United’s website allowed as many as 4,500 Feyenoord fans to buy seats in the home end.

Eventually United spotted the problem and revoked the tickets, providing full refunds.

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However many fans had already made travel plans from Holland and are expected to make the journey anyway.

A police source told the :”In total, we are looking at about 7,500 visiting fans and the worries are over the 4,000 who don’t have tickets. There will be a large police presence in the city centre to monitor them.

“The only operation that comes close in recent years was the FA Cup match against Leeds in 2010 when they brought 9,000.”

Among the ticketless fans are said to be around 200 notorious hooligans.

The club are one of the most notorious for football violence in all of Holland.

Ten years ago they were booted out of the UEFA Cup for rioting away at Nancy in France and, just a week ago, a video emerged of the two sets of fans having another scrap to mark the anniversary.

Since 2009, all the club’s games against hated rivals Ajax have been played without away fans.

And the match against Man United in Rotterdam was played in front of a reduced 26,000 capacity, with 50% of the De Kuip stadium closed due to fears over crowd trouble.

Feyenoord are set to bring 25 undercover spotters and stewards to sit in the away end at Old Trafford and ensure the match passes without incident.