Soccer: Fans held at ports in England game crackdown

Police were today continuing their operation to stop potential troublemakers making the trip to see the Germany-England World Cup qualifying match in Munich.

More than a dozen England fans were detained at ports and airports yesterday as they attempted to travel to tomorrow’s match, police said.

The men were detained in the UK as the England team arrived at their Munich city centre hotel, the Mandarin Oriental - a controversial choice as it is very near a massive beer hall called the Hofbrauhaus.

As fans boarded planes and boats in the UK, Essex Police said they had detained nine people at Stansted airport and three at the port of Harwich.

Another man was detained at Birmingham airport.

All the men were detained by police under the provisions of the Football (Disorder) Act, which allows police to apply for a magistrates court order banning suspected troublemakers from travelling abroad.

Five of the men detained at Stansted appeared in court yesterday.

Two of them will still be able to go to Munich after magistrates turned down one banning order application and police withdrew another.

A 26-year-old man from Andover, Hampshire received a three-year banning order and a 25-year-old man from Peterborough received a two-year ban.

A 22-year-old man from Swindon had to surrender his passport.

The four other men detained at Stansted will appear at Chelmsford magistrates court later today as police seek banning orders against them.

Two of the men stopped at Harwich, both aged 21 and from Colchester, were arrested on suspicion of committing football violence offences in the UK and were being questioned by police.

The third fan stopped at Harwich was a 34-year-old man from Colchester who will be the subject of a banning order application at Harwich magistrates court today.

The majority of fans stopped were detained by Essex Police who were taking part in a nationwide operation aimed at preventing hooligans from travelling to Munich.

Assistant Chief Constable Joe Edwards said: ‘‘Hopefully, the bulk of fans will not be unduly troubled by the operation and we hope that what we are doing will help to make the game trouble-free.’’

Most of the early arrivals catching flights to Munich from Stansted airport were content with the police security operation and said they felt it was justified to minimise hooliganism.

As part of the police operation 537 England supporters - most of whom have convictions for hooliganism - received letters last week ordering them to hand in their passports, an increase of more than 80% on the last major international match.

An undisclosed number of plain clothes officers are travelling to Germany and the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) says it is the largest ever English police operation for a single England international match abroad.

Chief of operations for Munich Police Josef Strasser said an area at the stadium had been set aside for up to 800 England fans if they turned up at the German end with tickets bought on the black market.