Football: Britain corrects World Cup hooligan blunder

LONDON - The British government has corrected a blunder in which it barred 2,500 of England's most notorious football hooligans from just the opening day of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, a newspaper said Sunday.

Police Minister Damian Green signed a legal document that would have left them "free to cause mayhem", The Mail on Sunday said, had one of his team not later spotted the error.

The statutory instrument forces known hooligans to surrender their passports between certain dates.

It initially said the travel ban would start on June 2 - 10 days before the opening ceremony - and end on June 13, rather than July 13.

The tournament's first full day of matches are on June 13, with England's campaign opening with their match against Italy the following day.

The instrument was put before parliament on January 29. Officials at the Home Office interior ministry then noticed the blunder.

The corrected version, entitled The Football Spectators (2014 World Cup Control Period) (Amendment) Order 2014, was laid before parliament on Thursday.

"An amendment order was drafted immediately," a spokesman was quoted as saying.

The amendment's explanatory note says it is "to correct an erroneous reference to 13th June 2014 as being the date of the last match... "when in fact the correct date is 13th July 2014".