NATIONAL tabloid newspapers are fanning the flames of Anglo-German football rivalry, a German-born North-East academic said last night.

As England prepares to play Germany in a friendly at the new Wembley, tonight, Dr Christian Schwieger said any war-inspired antagonism between people of the two countries has largely disappeared.

But Dr Schweiger, of Durham University's Department of Government and International Affairs, accused Britain's "red tops" of trying to whip-up antipathy with references to the Second World War.

Dr Schweiger, who has lived in this country since 2000 and is the author of a book on co-operation between Britain and Germany, said bad feeling from the Second World War had gradually disappeared in recent years.

Dr Schweiger said: "The role of the tabloid media is the main aspect behind Anglo-German tensions. The majority of British people today, especially younger generations, perceive Germany as a partner country, no longer holding any particular resentments about Germany and its people.

"The obsessive anti-European sentiment expressed by the Conservative government under Margaret Thatcher in the Eighties allowed the British tabloids to use increasingly hostile and often xenophobic language against the UK's continental European partners, particularly France and Germany.

"This legacy has lingered on and becomes particularly bad during football competitions."

In his book - Britain, Germany and the Future of the European Union - Dr Schweiger writes that the two countries are becoming closer culturally and politically

He said: "It is therefore no exaggeration to claim that, today, normality rules in British-German relations. With no concealed suspicions remaining between them, the British and Germans would hence be ideal partners in Europe".

Dr Schwieger said he was not a big football fan, but enjoyed watching big international games, such as the World Cup and European Cup matches.

He said: "On a personal level, I have never encountered any hostility from people here. You get jokes - it makes life more interesting - but nothing similar to what is written in the tabloid press.''

He said most Germans saw it as rather humorous, but a lot of people don't understand why it is happening", but added that the country did have a heated rivalry with Poland that was reflected in its own press coverage.