A 24-year-old man died on January 8 in a clash between around 150 supporters of rival teams in the central Polish city of Lodz.
Authorities vow they are ready to take on the gangs, some openly neo-Nazi, others involved in organised crime.
“We are prepared. We have plenty of experience in the area and officers are well trained,” Poland’s national police spokesman Krzysztof Hajdas told AFP.
The justice ministry has announced it will use electronic ankle tethers to monitor the movements of Polish fans banned from stadia for the duration of Euro 2012 from June 8 to July 1.
Currently there are roughly 1,800 such banned fans.
The measure is part of a raft of draft legislation on domestic security Poland’s liberal government, led by football-mad Prime Minister Donald Tusk, has set as a priority for 2011.
Since the Iron Curtain fell two decades ago, some of Poland’s fans have developed organised groups who worship England’s once-notorious hooligan “firms”.
Hooligans supporting rival clubs are known to organise “ustawki”, or fights pitting fan-gangs against each other. It was such a pre-planned scrap that killed the 24-year-old man in January.
Four of 29 suspects under investigation in the case have been remanded in police custody.
Following the death, national chief of police Andrzej Matejuk reinforced police units specifically focused on combating football hooligans by infiltrating the gangs to identify members involved in criminal activities.
Hajdas insists that police efforts to contain hooligan violence paid off in 2010 with authorities recording 100 incidents over the course of the year from thousands of matches at all league levels in Poland.
This figure was down from the 180 cases of hooligan-related violence in 2009.
Police are focusing on hooligan involvement in organised crime as some gang members have turned to drug trafficking.
In February, police detained supporters of first-division Ruch Chorzow, based in Poland’s hard-living southern Silesian coal basin, on suspicion of drug trafficking, including 80 kilogrammes (176 pounds) of amphetamine.
Authorities are also monitoring football supporters voicing allegiance with far-right groups.
On February 20, fans of first-division Legia Warsaw rallied in the capital alongside Polish ultra-nationalists calling for Kosovo to revert to Serbia.
A large anti-Semitic banner was touted in public during a third-division derby in May 2010 in the south-eastern Polish city of Rzeszow. Local prosecutors charged two suspects in the case but dropped investigations against four others.
A Warsaw prosecutor recently ordered the probe to be re-opened.
“We perhaps won’t be able to make racism disappear from the stadia during Euro 2012, but we can take advantage of the situation to actively combat it,” says sociologist Rafal Pankowski.
Pankowski heads Poland’s “Never Again” anti-racism organisation, part of Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE), a partner to European football’s governing body UEFA.
Hajdas meawnhile also insists fans supporting Poland’s national side are generally a more law-abiding bunch than those showing up at premiere and lower league matches.
“Supporters of the Polish national side conduct themselves in a completely civilised manner. Everything will depend on how the fans of the other sides who come to Poland will behave. In any case, we’re ready,” he insisted.
Poland is co-hosting Euro 2012 with Ukraine.