Police are launching a crackdown on racism at football matches.

Saturday will see "positive action" at all grounds in England and Wales, the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) said.

Next weekend will also be targeted with officers arresting, charging and pursuing banning orders wherever possible.

They will give priority to tackling overt racism, including the focused use of ground CCTV to identify those involved in racist chanting.

Last season there were 69 arrests for racial chanting and language.

Inadequate reporting

Acpo spokesman on football issues, Durham Constabulary assistant chief constable Ron Hogg, described the total as "ludicrously low".

It was still higher than for the three previous seasons, with 34 arrests in 1999-2000, 25 the previous year and 33 the year before that.

Mr Hogg believes part of the problem is that racist chanting is not being reported often enough to police.

The initiative starting is not in response to any particular surge and English football does not have a bad record from recent years, he added.

Around the country there have been high profile arrests, announcements over the tannoy system as to why individuals have been arrested and publicity for arrests in match programmes.

Asian communities

But senior officers believe there is a need for a more co-ordinated approach.

They believe black and Asian communities are badly represented among fans and want to test the new initiative towards the end of this season.

The campaign is supported by the Football Association, the FA Premier League and the Football League.

Fans are being urged to report incidents to the Kick It Out anti-racism campaign's confidential hotline on 0800 169 9414.

Officers injured

Among the football matches causing concern on Saturday is Oldham Athletic's clash with Stoke City which was marred by racial assaults and disorder last year.

During the game racist chants were shouted at Oldham supporters and after the match petrol bombs were thrown at police in riot gear as rival fans clashed.

Three police officers were injured and 14 people arrested - nine from Stoke and five from Oldham.

Hundreds of uniformed officers from Greater Manchester Police and Staffordshire Police will be on duty at the football ground, Oldham town centre and Manchester city centre.

Undercover officers will be mixing with the fans and officers will also visit Stoke to arrest any troublemakers not caught on the day.

Public order offences

Six weeks after last year's violence at the football match in Oldham, the town experienced its worst race riots in 15 years.

Almost 100 people were charged with public order offences and hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of damage was caused.

Stoke fans were also involved in serious football violence in April 2000 during clashes with Cardiff City fans.

Scuffles in and around Stoke's stadium resulted in 12 police officers and 27 members of the public being injured as well as thousands of pounds of damage.