Ron Hogg, Assistant Chief Constable of Durham Police, is charged with ensuring England football fans have a trouble-fee and enjoyable World Cup.

In the second of a series of special reports from Japan, he talks about the concerns of the local community and police ahead of England's match with Argentina, today, and the ticket fiasco.

THERE are only a few hours to go before England face Argentina in Sapporo.

Certainly, the Japanese police and local community are concerned about the fact that there is this rivalry between the two sides, and the next 24 hours will be critical.

But, if we can get through that, then we really will be cooking on gas.

We have been told that car showrooms and shops have been boarded up, but we haven't seen any evidence of it.

Throughout the week, it has been business as usual - running checks at the airports in Japan and being out with Japanese officers offering advice, and it seems to be working well.

At the end of the England-Sweden game, last Sunday, the match commander came and shook Graham Stafford's hand (the Northumbria Police superintendent who is advising local police officers on tactics) so firmly that his eyes were almost bulging out of his head, he was so happy that everything had gone well.

We couldn't believe how everything went for that match, it was like a dream come true. Looking back, the behaviour of the English fans was impeccable.

So far, we've had a total of four English arrests - one for alleged ticket touting and three for allegedly passing counterfeit currency. But there have been no arrests for drunkenness or public disorder.

The Japanese police have been very good, very positive and have gone out of their way to be extremely helpful. In fact, they've probably been a bit more lenient with the fans in some regards and we've been quite grateful for that.

The big problem has been the ticketing fiasco. None of the matches are sold out, despite the fact that there are people outside wanting to get in.

What is concerning the police at the moment is that they don't know how many tickets are being sold.

We know roughly where the Argentinians are and the English fans, but we don't know if some are going to be sitting next to each other. Tickets have not been getting to people.

We are hearing tales of tickets going for up to £700 and England fans are prepared to pay that.

We expect there may be up to 7,000 England fans coming to the game and we believe as many as 1,000 Argentina fans.

We would be very surprised if we got through the next 24 hours without some minor disorder or drunkenness. But time will tell.