ENGLAND and Wales fans face an unprecedented city centre booze ban at their Euro 2016 clash.
The French will bar all public drinking for 24 hours from 6am when the two UK nations play in Lens — just an hour’s drive from Calais — on June 16.
Cops hope it will stop thousands of ticketless fans swarming into the small city and cut the risk of riots.
The unprecedented match day booze ban comes because French authorities fear confrontation between rival drunken mobs could spark a “Battle of Britain” in the small French city of Lens.
Assistant Chief Constable Mark Roberts, of the UK’s Football Policing Unit, said: “The clear message is, ‘If you don’t have tickets for the England-Wales game, do not go to Lens’.
“There will be a drink ban enforced on the city centre in Lens, so you will not be able to drink in the street.
“You will not be able to get alcohol.
“They’ll be searching buses and cars on the way in.
“The concern will be lots of people going to a city that can’t manage the capacity.”
French police are desperate to prevent a volatile atmosphere developing in Lens as fans of the rival home nations meet in a tournament for the first time in decades.
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Concern has intensified because Lens’ sold-out Stade Bollaert-Delelis Stadium seats just 35,000 — and the small city centre has just two bars.
Police believe if fans bring alcohol there is a risk plastered yobs will hurl bottles and cans at each other.
England and Wales were each allocated 9,000 tickets for the 3pm kick-off — but there were more than 20,000 applications.
Supporters with tickets for the match will only be allowed to drink in official fan zones.
French authorities, still on maximum security alert following last November’s Paris terror attacks, have announced a zero tolerance on hooliganism.
Around 250,000 fans from qualified nations England, Wales and Northern Ireland have tickets for Euro 2016.
But police admit they expect half a million to go to France.
Currently 1,841 England fans and 86 Wales supporters are under banning orders that apply from May 31 to July 11 and must surrender their passports.
Spotters will be placed in UK ports and airports to detect hooligans trying to sneak out of the country.
Football alcohol bans have been ordered before but a 24-hour town centre crackdown on match day is believed to be unprecedented.
England play Wales five days after another potentially explosive clash against Russia in Marseille.
English hooligans rioted in the city during the 1998 World Cup.
Neo-Nazi Russian football thugs have already threatened to target England fans.
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