England players face FA warning before Turkey game

Satisfaction with England's 2-1 victory away to Macedonia in the European Championship on Saturday has been tempered by concern about the increased pressures surrounding the final group match in Turkey next month. On the reasonable assumption that Liechtenstein are beaten at Old Trafford on Wednesday, England would move one point ahead of the Turks with one game left and would therefore need a draw in Istanbul on 11 October to win Group Seven and qualify automatically for the finals in Portugal.

Participation would be under threat, however, if there is serious crowd trouble in Turkey and the Football Association is especially desperate that no English supporters should travel there. England's manager, Sven Goran Eriksson, has gone as far as to suggest that anyone doing so could be risking their life. His players will also be warned to be much more circumspect about any celebrations on the pitch.

Having declined to take tickets for both matches, the FA regarded the Macedonia trip as a dry run for next month. About 350 supporters defied requests not to travel to Skopje, and there were just enough incidents - like the burning of an English flag before kick-off - to offer a taste of what Istanbul will be like. But the strategy was undermined by reports yesterday quoting the president of the Turkish Football Federation as saying that his organisation would sell England fans as many tickets as they wanted. An FA spokesman said: "We'll be discussing this with the Turkish Federation over the next 24 hours. We'd like to stress further that our position and that of the police and the government is that no supporters should travel to Turkey."

Eriksson added: "It's all about security. Of course I should like to see fans but it's better not to because you can risk being injured or risk your life, which happened with Leeds in Turkey. If the security men say it's a problem you've got to listen to them."

The manager's instinct was to defend his players' celebrations in front of the English fans in Skopje as understandable emotion during and after an important victory. Chelsea's John Terry strayed further from the party line when he said: "We wanted to win for the fans who travelled over. The lads went over to show their appreciation. The flag burning was terrible. We were fuming [about it]." But a senior FA official said: "Can you imagine what would happen if the players did that in Turkey?"

To ensure that the squad for that game is as strong as possible, Eriksson may have to deny England's captain, David Beckham, an emotional return to the Old Trafford pitch on Wednesday so that he avoids any possibility of another suspension. Beckham and Arsenal's Sol Campbell received yellow cards for fouls during the first half against Macedonia. Steven Gerrard, who missed the match through injury but trained yesterday, also has one booking hanging over him and it would be foolish to risk any of those three key players collecting another one and therefore being banned for the game in Istanbul.

Beckham, who left Manchester United to join Real Madrid in the summer, has been looking forward to his return to the ground and might even try to persuade Eriksson that he should play. He had his way in being allowed to turn out for Real last Tuesday and as a result suffered a groin strain that might have kept him out on Saturday. This time it would make more sense for the head coach to put his foot down.

Beckham may even have realised the implications as soon as he was cautioned for a foul on the Macedonian striker Georgi Hristov shortly before half-time. It was his third yellow card of the tournament and he has already served one suspension, for the home game with Slovakia. Bizarre threats from an opposing player that "You won't get out of this place alive", had also wound him up but the anger was used to good effect in the second half, during which Beckham scored his sixth goal in eight internationals to win the game.

Victory over Liechtenstein would be England's eighth in succession, beating Alf Ramsey's record run in 1966, and Eriksson would then be quite happy to forgo a ninth by drawing in Turkey.