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Martin O'Neill desperately hopes football is not returning to the dark days when hooliganism blighted the game.
His fears come after both Manchester United and Tottenham were involved in ugly scenes during Champions League and UEFA Cup matches in Italy and Spain.
The Aston Villa boss said: 'I would certainly hope we are not returning to the dark days. You would hope the last few nights would be isolated cases.
'Certainly talking about British fans, Celtic, for instance in 2003, descended upon Seville, taking 80,000 people and I think there were about three arrests.
'If ever there was a show where people could come and behave and enjoy themselves at the same time that was it. Now I know that might be the exception.
'These things have reared their head at a time when we felt the British game had sorted its problems out.
'You can only tell from the pictures but I must admit there looked to be a fair degree of provocation in terms of where the police were positioned, which side of the perspex divide, in Roma.
'I didn't see the pictures properly from Seville but certainly we have seen that the Roma fans were being guarded by stewards, and the policemen armed with batons were in the Manchester United area.'
O`Neill added: 'I think they [police in other parts of Europe] can be over the top. We had an incident in that European run in 2003 when Celtic went to Celta Vigo.
'There were a number of fans just heading into an area and because they weren't moving along quickly enough were baton charged by the police. There wasn't a Celta Vigo fan in sight.
'I don't think we can ever be too complacent but, with respect, the Italians have had a few problems.
'I'm not trying to shove blame elsewhere but, from the pictures, you got the impression that if they were taking a side it was going to be the Roma side.
'Hooliganism was rife when I was playing but it feels totally different [in this country] now. You feel you can walk to a stadium and not feel threatened and that was not the case in my day.
'So I think there have been great, great strides made in that aspect certainly to clean up the domestic game.'
His fears come after both Manchester United and Tottenham were involved in ugly scenes during Champions League and UEFA Cup matches in Italy and Spain.
The Aston Villa boss said: 'I would certainly hope we are not returning to the dark days. You would hope the last few nights would be isolated cases.
'Certainly talking about British fans, Celtic, for instance in 2003, descended upon Seville, taking 80,000 people and I think there were about three arrests.
'If ever there was a show where people could come and behave and enjoy themselves at the same time that was it. Now I know that might be the exception.
'These things have reared their head at a time when we felt the British game had sorted its problems out.
'You can only tell from the pictures but I must admit there looked to be a fair degree of provocation in terms of where the police were positioned, which side of the perspex divide, in Roma.
'I didn't see the pictures properly from Seville but certainly we have seen that the Roma fans were being guarded by stewards, and the policemen armed with batons were in the Manchester United area.'
O`Neill added: 'I think they [police in other parts of Europe] can be over the top. We had an incident in that European run in 2003 when Celtic went to Celta Vigo.
'There were a number of fans just heading into an area and because they weren't moving along quickly enough were baton charged by the police. There wasn't a Celta Vigo fan in sight.
'I don't think we can ever be too complacent but, with respect, the Italians have had a few problems.
'I'm not trying to shove blame elsewhere but, from the pictures, you got the impression that if they were taking a side it was going to be the Roma side.
'Hooliganism was rife when I was playing but it feels totally different [in this country] now. You feel you can walk to a stadium and not feel threatened and that was not the case in my day.
'So I think there have been great, great strides made in that aspect certainly to clean up the domestic game.'