Police hold over 50 after fan skirmishes ahead of England game

Jul 1, 2006, 11:57 GMT

Gelsenkirchen - Police were holding 53 fans Saturday after skirmishes on the eve of England's quarter-final against Portugal in Gelsenkirchen.

The troublemakers were rounded up for brawling near the town's main station on Friday evening, following Germany's win against Argentina.

Up to 1,000 English and German fans where milling around the station when bottles began to fly, prompting police to move in.

Thirty-one of those held were German, 13 from England and the rest from different countries, a police spokesman said.

Thirty-two of them faced charges of assault, while the others were placed in protective custody until after Saturday's game for refusing to obey police instructions to move on.

One English fan was admitted to hospital after being injured by a bottle, but discharged himself so he could go into town and continue celebrating, police said.

Some 80,000 English fans and 20,000 Portuguese supporters were expected in Gelsenkirchen for the match.

The Gelsenkirchen stadium has a capacity of 53,000, but only 30,000 English and 7,000 Portuguese fans have tickets for the match. The others will have to watch at public viewing areas around the city.

The biggest of these is at the local racecourse, where 80,000 fans can see the game on two large screens with original English commentary from the BBC.

The city's Fan Mile has ordered extra supplies of beer to cater to the notoriously thirsty English fans.

German police have been stepping up border controls and making spot checks on motorways in order to weed out troublemakers from the vast majority of peaceful supporters.

Some 4,000 known English hooligans were prevented from leaving Britain by having their passports withdrawn for the duration of the World Cup.