The shooting of a Paris St Germain fan after a UEFA Cup game has sparked a nationwide debate in France on ridding soccer of violence and racism, and prompted a policy change on ticket sales.

French Interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy said on Saturday that tickets at Paris St Germain's Parc des Princes would now be sold only to official fans' associations.

"We prefer to see stands that are empty than full of unwanted people," Sarkozy told a news conference on Saturday. "We do not want racists in stadiums any more, nor Nazi salutes or monkey noises. Football is not war," he added.

Many of the hooligans associated with PSG do not belong to official fans' associations.

"When football kills," screamed the white-lettered headline on the otherwise black front page of French sports daily L'Equipe on Saturday.

A policeman shot dead one man and injured another while under attack from fans shouting racist comments following PSG's 4-2 defeat by Israeli team Hapoel Tel Aviv on Thursday.

Witnesses said the black policeman opened fire on a mob of PSG fans as they chased a Jewish supporter of the Israeli team outside Parc des Princes in Paris.

However, The Hapoel fan said the policeman had fired a single shot into the air.

"The policeman pointed his gun at 60 degrees in an attempt to disperse them (the PSG fans)," Yanniv Hazout told Sport magazine in a report sent to Reuters. "I only remember a gunshot in the air. It is the only shot I heard. If the gunshot had reached someone I would have seen it, I was only one meter behind him. I did not see anyone fall. That is why I was surprised when I heard there was a homicide."

French Professional Football League (LFP) president Frederic Thiriez said in a statement: "We all have the same goal, which is to eradicate hooliganism, racism and violence from soccer for good.

"The action we have been taking is already producing results but we must speed things up," he added.

Nevertheless, observers have pointed out that PSG has battled hooliganism for years among its fan-base and has altogether failed to tackle the issue.

"The death of a PSG supporter...tragically is a reminder that French football has failed to eradicate violence and racism from the stands of some of its clubs, which is unforgivable," wrote L'Equipe.

The Hapoel supporter was being pursued by around 100 PSG fans when plainclothes policeman Antoine Granomort intervened, according to the police.

Granomort was placed in custody while magistrates investigated his assertion that he had acted in self-defence.

The fan who was shot dead, Julien Quemener, 25, was a member of the Boulogne Boys, a group of PSG supporters comprising far-right sympathisers, some registered as violent by police.

Under French law, such organisations cannot be dismantled.

Thiriez said the league's priority would be to ensure that PSG's next games, away to Nantes on Sunday and at home to Toulouse on Dec. 3, would remain incident-free.

Rival groups of PSG soccer hooligans ransacked a motorway service station near Nantes on their way back from a league match there last season after a fight broke out between them.

"A match against PSG is always delicate but this one is exceptionally problematic given the dramatic events that have just taken place," Nantes president Rudi Roussillon, who will implement reinforced security measures for their next meeting, told reporters.

(China Daily November 27, 2006)