Fans who run on to the pitch at England matches will be banned for life as part of a Football Association (FA) crackdown on hooligans.

England face disciplinary action by UEFA on Thursday over pitch invasions and racist abuse by home fans in their Euro 2004 qualifying win over Turkey at Sunderland on April 2.

FA officials say they are counting on a series of measures to tackle the hooligans -- ranging from action by the courts, stadium bans and, more ambitiously, a change in the demographic profile of their fans.

"The minority of people that cause us problems has now become too large a minority," FA marketing and communications director Paul Barber told reporters.

"We are going to work with the police and call on the courts to impose punishments as severe as they can be for any of those people convicted of football-related offences."

"We will certainly impose our own life bans on anyone that comes on to the pitch during an England game. They will not get tickets for England games in the future and I mean that for life."

Hooliganism has been a problem in England for 30 years. Courts currently have more than 1,600 banning orders, introduced before Euro 2000, to combat hooligans travelling to away games.

The life bans could be extended to FA Cup games and Barber said the FA is also anxious to tackle the issue of racism at football grounds.

Stadium billboards, the FA website, match programmes and England players will all be used to get across an anti-racist message at the friendly on June 3 against Serbia and Montenegro at Leicester, Barber said.

"We will want action taken against such offences. It's unacceptable, we're not prepared to put up with it and we will condemn it," Barber said.

The FA also wants to tackle the hooliganism which tarnished England's appearances at Euro 2000 and the 1998 World Cup in France by attracting a different sort of fan.

"We will look over the next several weeks at how we can change the demographics of the people who follow England, particularly abroad.

"We all know there is a very large percentage of young white males that follow us abroad.

"For the most part, they are peace-loving football supporters who want to enjoy the game but there is a minority -- and it is too many -- that seem to want to cause problems.

"We want to work with the authorities and supporters' groups to find ways of removing them from following the national team."

Barber cited the example of two away games when the FA had taken groups of families with separate flights, accommodation and stadium seating  from other England groups.

"They both worked exceptionally well...we did achieve something which perhaps we can model and scale upwards," Barber told reporters.

For home games, he said the FA would be looking at whether they could "positively discriminate in favour of women, children, families or ethnic groups".

"We have a percentage (of seats) in the ground that goes to schoolchildren. We may look to increase that it if we can."

England risk having to play their next home qualifier -- against Slovakia on June 11 at Middlesbrough -- behind closed doors if UEFA cracks down on Thursday.

Fearing crowd trouble, FA officials do not wish to take up England's ticket allocation for their final Euro 2004 qualifier in Turkey next October.