WARSAW, June 1 - Tens of thousands of eastern Europeans head for the World Cup finals for the first time this year yet all eyes are on a tiny group of hooligans for whom the tournament is a first chance to make global headlines.

Foreign and local media have played up the threat of east against west hooligan battles with images of street clashes and promises from Polish gangs that they will cross the border armed with knives and axes to attack English and German fans.

Police, football associations and ordinary supporters in the region say the reports are overblown, but attempts to calm fears have been drowned out by a week of rioting at the end of the Polish league season and trouble with Croatian fans in World Cup qualifying.

"Everybody knows it may be a problem," lifelong Legia Warsaw fan Ziemek Dulinski told Reuters after an estimated 7,000 fans rioted in the Polish capital on May 13, smashing up cafes and bars and frightening tourists in the city's historic Old Town.

"I've been to almost every game this season, both home and away, and there hasn't been much trouble. But there are 70-80 psychopaths who just want to fight and when they start the rest follow, especially if it's with the police."

POLICE FAILINGS

Poland's ruling right won last September's election on a tough-on-crime platform, promising to crack down on hooligans after outbreaks of soccer-related violence during the campaign.

But police infrastructure is a long way behind foreign contemporaries, with few cameras at grounds and until recently no register other than the list of those with stadium bans to cover the more than 30,000 fans who will travel to Germany.

Regional forces are bidding to fill in the gaps by interviewing hundreds of supporters who won tickets in the Polish FA's draw, searching for potential troublemakers or those who may have passed tickets on.

But fans' groups say this sort of search is unlikely to yield much and that the hooligans will not have trouble going to Germany if they want to.

"For the hard core money or travelling is not a problem," said Kuba Zywko, who runs Legia Warsaw site legia.pl. "The question is will they want to go. Mostly they only care about fighting with other teams in Poland."

OVERBLOWN

Police say media have given exaggerated accounts of stabbings or fighting after games and play down the danger that more than a handful of hooligans will travel in June.

They estimate the hardcore of Polish hooligans at around 3000 -- as many as five times the number with stadium bans but well below the number of English fans banned from travelling under UK anti-hooligan laws.

"We've seen this whole circus before," says national force spokesman Krzysztof Hajdas. "These kind of elements like to talk up the chances of something happening, and the media like it too. Does the trouble then materialise? Generally not."

Polish and German border guards have been training together for searches of busloads of fans and they are also preparing for an influx of supporters travelling from Ukraine or basing themselves in Poland to save money on living costs.

Ukrainian, Czech and Serbian fans have little record of violence and the chief other worry from the region is the estimated 20,000 Croatian fans who are expected to travel to Berlin to watch their opening game against Brazil on June 13.

Croatian soccer association HNS was fined during World Cup qualifying after crowd trouble during an away match at Malta, where Croats ripped out seats and clashed with home fans and police.

In another away game, in Budapest, two different groups of Croat fans clashed among themselves.

"We are preparing first and foremost for checks of coaches carrying the biggest and most aggressive groups," said Polish border guard spokesman Jacek Ogrodowicz. "We are working closely with German authorities and we believe we are well-prepared."

FIRST TIME FANS

The sad thing about the hooligan debate is that it has overshadowed what for ordinary Poles, Czechs and Croatians is a rare chance to attend a World Cup, empowered by rising wages and the proximity of this year's tournament.

Maciej Szubertowski was 13 when he watched Poland win third place in 1974 at the last finals in Germany on grainy communist-era television, and he's dreamt of actually being there ever since.

"There were dozens of my friends in the draw, but only me and my father-in-law got tickets," says Maciek, now 45 and the jovial owner of a successful catering firm that is typical of the small businesses driving Poland's booming economy.

"For us both it's a dream come true."

Poland's football authorities distributed around 30,000 tickets in a draw carried out in March, but travel agencies say thousands more may travel in June.

"I'm going for the last group game and I'm just hoping we're playing for more than pride," says Maciek.

"It's a lot of money to pay for a friendly. Who knows, if we go through, maybe we'll stay for longer."

Additional reporting by Zoran Milosavljevic in Belgrade, Ron Popeski in Kiev and Zagreb newsroom.