The Football Association has issued life bans to England supporters for the first time ever amid fears that the rise of a new generation of 18 to 25-year-old hooligans is leading to some of the worst behaviour in world football.

Two supporters have received the life bans in what is a major new crackdown ahead of Saturday’s World Cup qualifier against Scotland.

It is unprecedented that the organisation has issued such a severe ban and follows the appalling conduct by some fans at the recent England friendly away to Germany in Dortmund.

Within that, a new group of young fans have been identified who are regarded as behaving differently from the traditional football hooligan and treat England away games as an opportunity to act as badly as they want. Officials claim that these young supporters almost lose their identity with their drinking and bad behaviour.