Disappointed English fans leave with heads high

GELSENKIRCHEN, July 2 (Reuters) Once viewed as an invading army of potential trouble-makers, England fans leave the World Cup in Germany with their new reputation for fun-loving, boisterous support fully intact and praised by organisers.

Some 315,000 England fans were present in the venue cities for each of the team's five games, making them the second-largest group of supporters behind the host nation.

''There have been tens and tens of thousands of England fans here, and before the World Cup they said they had changed. There would be no trouble and they were coming to party.

''They proved themselves right, they are the world champions of partying,'' Gerd Graus, spokesman for the German organising committee, said today. ''They created a great atmosphere, they have a fan culture unique in the world.

Although several hundred English fans were detained by police for mostly drunken and aggressive behaviour, there was no serious hooliganism at the tournament.

''Of course, among so many thousands of people there are bound to be a few arrests, but statisically speaking, the number of arrests are irrelevant. We all know what has happened in the past, but now we congratulate them,'' said Graus.

ABSOLUTELY SUPERB ''After Euro 2004 (which went well), many people said it was a one off and it will never happen again and how Germany is going to be the real test but I think our fans have been absolutely superb,'' said Stephen Thomas, head of a British police team in Germany.

The praise follows decades of condemnation for England fans who have a long history of soccer-related violence.

They caused mayhem at the World Cup in France in 1998 and Euro 2000 in the Netherlands and Belgium when hooligans clashed with police on the streets.

But there was no trouble in 2002 in South Korea and Japan and again two years later in Portugal when more and more families started to follow the national side.

''Since 2000, we were all determined never to see those scenes again, when we had the reputation as being the hooligans of Europe,'' Assistant Chief Constable Thomas said.

''I think we've finally laid that to rest by what we've seen here in Germany.'' More than 80,000 England supporters clad in red and white descended on the industrial city of Gelsenkirchen to watch their side's quarter-final loss to Portugal.

Like the other venue cities, fans drank in bars and mixed happily with the locals and police before and after the game despite their obvious disappointment.

DRUNKEN BEHAVIOUR However, some 100 fans were detained in Gelsenkirchen for drunken behaviour, adding to the more than 600 supporters who were held at other venues earlier in the tournament.

Under German law, police can detain people for up to 48 hours if they fear an offence is about to be committed and it does not constitute a full arrest.

''English fans are among the best in the world -- and not only at the World Cup but in general,'' said FIFA director of communications Markus Siegler.

''They really love their football but from our point of view even 100 arrests (fans detained) are 100 too many. There should be no trouble-makers at all but overall they have been great.'' Kevin Miles, the international coordinator for the Football Supporters Federation, said it had been a fantastic tournament from the fans' point of view.

''We may not have seen the team rise to the heights to which we all believed and hoped it was capable but...there has been an extraordinarily positive contribution made to the tournament by English football supporters in general.

REUTERS DH PC1820