German police calmly pass first tests

BERLIN, June 12 (Reuters) Calm but no-nonsense German policing appears to be paying off in the opening days of soccer's World Cup with the hosts successfully weathering the first big waves of potential problem supporters.

Games involving England, Poland and the Netherlands -- three of the countries with the biggest travelling fan groups and the worst reputation for trouble -- set police their first tests of the month-long tournament but passed off mainly uneventfully.

''There were a few incidents with alcohol here and there, but they were small and manageable,'' said Interior Ministry spokesman Christian Sachs.

He was referring to incidents in Frankfurt and Cologne where 26 England fans were arrested over the weekend, according to a British police spokeswoman in Germany.

When trouble threatened in Frankfurt's main square on Friday night, with England and German fans taunting each other, riot police were quick to move in and form a double line to separate them, staying in place until the groups drifted away.

They intervened quickly again on Saturday night after some England supporters began throwing bottles. Once again, they defused the situation with a mixture of firmness and humour, with some officers even dancing with fans.

HOOLIGAN FLASHPOINT Elsewhere, yesterday's game between Serbia and Montenegro and the Netherlands, which police had seen as a possible hooligan flashpoint, was free of trouble with no fans arrested on either side and officers keeping a low profile.

''It was one big orange party. You didn't see any police on the streets but they were very close, for the moment there would be problems,'' said Gijs de Jong, the Dutch soccer association's safety and security coordinator.

German police have worked hard with their international counterparts to identify potential troublemakers in advance and share intelligence to keep them under close surveillance. So far, they believe it is working.

''Some areas were a lot less problematic than we'd feared -- for example, the first Poland game was very low-key,'' Sachs said, referring to Friday's game against Ecuador. ''Basically it's running as planned, as we had hoped.'' With hooliganism seen as one of the biggest security threats to the World Cup, police have been schooled in the whole gamut of prevention measures, from soothing body language to full-scale riot control.

Trying to live up the tournament motto, ''A Time to Make Friends'', they have made clear they will tolerate high spirits but not violence. Some 250,000 police officers are on World Cup duty across the country.

The next likely challenges will come on Wednesday and Thursday, when Germany play Poland in Dortmund and England face Trinidad and Tobago in Nuremberg.

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