Hostile reception guaranteed for those who dare enter

That much had been made apparent to our group of seven football fans as we stared out through the bars of an outdoor cell behind the main police station in Dnipropetrovsk.

Our ‘crime’? We’d accepted the offer of a ride back from Stadium Meteor, a ramshackle venue situated on the outskirts of the city, to the main railway station in order to catch our overnight train back to Kiev.

All had seemed fine as the bus arrived back in the main square only for events to take a turn for the worse when we were met by 20 or so officers, none of whom, it soon emerged, spoke a word of English but did a good line in pushing us towards the compound that housed a less-than-inviting cell.

For the next hour, we tried, to no avail, to find out what was going on and why we’d seemingly been arrested for nothing more than accepting a lift into town. As the minutes ticked down towards our scheduled departure time, we seemed destined to spend an unscheduled night in south east Ukraine before, at last, a senior officer arrived who could speak enough English to inform us we were being held until the train arrived and then taken across the square to the station.

Sure enough, 10 minutes before the train was due to leave we were let out and escorted to the waiting room. Looking back, I should have been prepared to wait to answer a call of nature once on board but, a day’s drinking combined with just having spent more than an hour stood in a police compound, meant I was desperate.

A request by a couple of us to use the toilet was duly given the thumbs-up, albeit on the condition that five police officers accompany us as the facilities were underground.

It was a strange order, though one that on the way back to the waiting room we were mighty glad of as, out of the darkness, came a small group of local idiots, complete with knives. Clearly, a chat about the game we’d just witnessed was not on their mind and, thankfully, our guardian angels swung into action and beat them away with a combination of pepper spray and weighty batons.

Never have I been so glad to leave a city as I was that night in Dnipropetrovsk and didn’t stop shaking until our train was safely on its way back north destined for the Ukrainian capital.

Ten years have passed since that unfortunate episode and Dnipro, the town’s football club, have moved to a new purpose-built stadium but the memory of that night still burns bright and is why, from the moment it became clear England’s Euro 2012 games would be staged in Ukraine, I was more than happy to watch the tournament from the safety of my own armchair.

Not for me the late night walks through streets that can, at best, be described as “moody”. Nor will I have to spend time avoiding the more volatile locals who have grown up watching videos of England fans smashing their way round Europe during the Eighties and Nineties, and still believe that is an accurate reflection of those who follow the national team.

Dnipropetrovsk, a closed city until the early 1990s due to the vital military work it undertook in developing weapons for the old Soviet Union, may not be on the roster of host towns for Euro 2012.

But regular visitors to Ukraine say Donetsk, Kharviv and Lviv are no different in terms of the ‘welcome’ that is likely to be afforded visitors.

Much can be put down to culture with outsiders still taking some getting used to, something that could be a factor in the racism that was highlighted in last week’s Panorama investigation into what visiting fans can expect during Euro 2012 when black players were subjected to appalling abuse.

It prompted Sol Campbell to urge fans to stay at home, advice that from my own experience is worth heeding.