IN THE end the fans behaved and the team were woefully disappointing. So ended England's hopes for the European football championship.

Once again the England dream died, and our hopes remained unfulfilled in that familiar, bitter way. We were out thought, out played and out manoeuvred by a Romania side that will now go on to meet Italy in the quarter-finals in Brussels on Saturday.

It could have been so much better, it could have been so much worse. More skilful football would have kept us in Euro 2000 and seen the dream live, at least for a few days more. Yet we could have won and still lost, as further appalling behaviour from the yob element among Britain's mostly decent fans could have seen England expelled from the tournament by UEFA, the governing body of European football.

Euro 2000 has shown up England on two fronts: our players have not been up to scratch, and some of our fans have been an utter disgrace, particularly in the build-up to last Saturday's game against Germany.

So the inquests continue into the standard of our national game, and into what can be done about those fans who besmirch our reputation abroad by perverting patriotism and turning what should be a source of pride into a cause for shame.

The political inquest mostly concerns what can be done to prevent known trouble-makers from travelling abroad. The Government might maintain that it is difficult to identify and contain hardened football yobs. Yet last night on television Panorama managed to pick out some of these hooligans. If a television reporter can manage this, surely the police could do likewise.

One strong but sensible suggestion is that all fans convicted of causing trouble while abroad should face a life-time ban from all football grounds in England.

Not everything is bad news. The fans behaved well in Belgium last night, as indeed they have throughout the tournament here in York, where their deportment at the weekend earned praise and a pat on the back from Superintendent John Lacy.

But all in all, our reputation lies in tatters and our bid to stage the World Cup in 2006 is looking shakier than ever.