EXTRA police officers will start patrolling Hampshire's airports and ferry ports this week in a bid to stop football thugs travelling to Germany for the World Cup.

Officers will be at Southampton International Airport today to ensure nobody who is subject to a Football Banning Order is allowed to travel.

Anyone subject to an order preventing them attending football matches should already have surrendered their passport in line with the conditions of the order.

The preparations being made by Hampshire police will be observed today by two German officers who will be flying in to the airport to see first-hand how Hampshire is stopping hooligans from travelling.

The officers are visiting the UK on an intelligence-gathering mission. They will pass the information back to police in their own country, which is hosting the tournament starting on Friday.

The German officers will be accompanied on their visit to Southampton International Airport by David Ainge, from the UK Football Planning Unit, which is responsible for management of football-related intelligence and policing issues across the country.

Airport patrols will also be looking for other suspected criminals such as those wanted on warrant and people with public order convictions.

The port operation is part of a clampdown across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

Since Sunday officers have also been patrolling all the main ferry ports with routes to Europe.

During the tournament high visibility patrols will be deployed across both counties during England matches, to prevent and disrupt any public order problems which may arise during and after the games.

Hampshire police have pledged the patrols will continue until the England team returns home, hopefully with or indeed without the trophy.