Uefa is working to try to introduce a cross-border sports police force to keep order at European soccer matches from next season, a British newspaper reported today.

Games involving English clubs Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur in Europe this week were marred by violent clashes between fans and local police in Rome and Seville.
   
"We are looking to create a type of European sports police, a way of dealing systematically with the problem," The Daily Telegraph quoted a senior official of European soccer's governing body as saying.
   
UEFA President Michel Platini recently called for the setting up of an international police force to deal with sports related violence, a topic of discussion in a meeting he had with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.
   
"We need cool heads. First of all, we cannot tolerate violence in any form off the pitch, but we also have to understand the mechanics of it," said the UEFA official, who was not identified.
   
"It is over the travelling fans that there are concerns over safety, because it is easier to cause trouble abroad than in England.
   
"But you have to take note of some reports in the Italian press after the incidents in Rome," he said.
   
"One point is the drinking habits of English fans, which do shock many southern Europeans."
   
There was trouble in the streets and in the stands when United met AS Roma in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final at Rome's Olympic Stadium on Wednesday with 18 fans, 14 English and four Italian, injured.
   
Baton-wielding Spanish riot police clashed with Spurs fans the following night during the first leg of the UEFA Cup quarter-final tie at Sevilla's Sanchez Pizjuan stadium.
   
Both Spurs and Sevilla expressed shock at the force Spanish police used to remove English fans from an unauthorised area of the stands.
   
"We have been seriously concerned about the law and order situation around European games for the last six months," the official said.
   
British newspapers said Tottenham and Chelsea officials would be discussing the trouble in Seville when the teams meet in the Premier League at Stamford Bridge on Saturday. Chelsea visit Spain next week to face Valencia in the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final.