SECURITY chiefs in Southampton today vowed to crack down on racists ahead of England's crunch European qualifier in the city tomorrow.

They issued the zero tolerance warning just 24 hours before the biggest football match in Southampton for more than 100 years.

A huge security operation will be mounted for the match with Macedonia at St Mary's Stadium.

It will involve as many as 300 Hampshire police officers as well as 350 stewards in and around the ground for the Euro 2004 qualifier.

And both the club and police are determined to make sure the players do not suffer any racial taunts.

It comes after England stars were at the end of a torrent of racial abuse during Saturday's 2-1 victory over Slovakia in Bratislava.

Chief Supt Graham Wyeth, head of Southampton police, said: "We've got a positive policy nationally with the Football Association of zero tolerance on three issues.

"Those are encroachment on to the pitch, the throwing of items and the chanting of racist comments or racist behaviour.

"I'm aware of the sad events in Slovakia on Saturday night and we will be working with the club so that we can gather evidence in the event of that happening. We can't be complacent."

Chief Supt Wyeth added that anyone seen or heard making racist comments or chants would be arrested and prosecuted.

And the warning was backed by Southampton Football Club. A spokeswoman said all stewards are told to report any racial incidents to police.

"They will all be briefed before the match and we've got the slogan 'Racism Just Ain't Saintly' on all our programmes," she added.

Yesterday two England players spoke at a press conference at St Mary's of the racial abuse suffered during the weekend's match.

Defender Sol Campbell, who missed the game through injury, said: "It's something that has to be sorted out but it's difficult to put your finger on how it's going to be done.

"It's about educating people but the problem is that when dads go to games with their sons it gets passed down."

And striker Emile Heskey added: "As I said after the Slovakia game, it was the worst I've ever experienced during a game but the police didn't do anything about it.

"That was also the view of some of the other players. It wasn't just coming from a small section of fans, it was from the whole ground.

"I've never been racially abused in England before. During the game I was getting a bit mad so I tried to understand what makes people do that."

Meanwhile Southampton City Council is also tackling the issue with an exhibition, called Focus on Black Footballers, at the Civic Centre for the next two weeks.

Development officer Don John said: "It's an exhibition which shows the presence of black footballers from 1937 to 2002 and we've got examples of people that played for Southampton Football Club."

The display is complemented by another exhibition on the issue by Saints called Racism Just Ain't Saintly and both mark National Anti-Racism Week of Action in Football, which is being sponsored by the Kick Racism out of Football campaign.

Youngsters from St Mary's Primary School will also be helping to put the message across by singing a song about beating racism out of football at a Civic Reception for the Ambassador of Macedonia tomorrow.