England fans praised after World Cup exit

German policemen watch over English football supporters in Gelsenkirchen. The World Cup organisers have paid tribute to England's travelling army of fans despite dozens of arrests following the World Cup quarter-final defeat against Portugal.

The World Cup organisers have paid tribute to England's travelling army of fans despite dozens of arrests following the World Cup quarter-final defeat against Portugal.

"The English fans said before they are now the world champions in partying. "They have proved to be right, we had a great atmosphere," organising committee spokesman Gerd Graus told a press conference in Berlin.

Police said they had arrested around 180 fans before and after England's defeat in a tense penalty shootout in the industrial western city of Gelsenkirchen.

About 80 supporters, most of them English, were arrested when they went on the rampage in the city centre and threw objects at the police just after Portugal had secured a place in the semi-finals.

FIFA spokesman Markus Siegler struck a different note by calling the behaviour of the fans unacceptable.

"The English fans are in general among the best in the world," he said.

"But if there are several hundred people arrested, it's still too many."

German police said they did not believe those detained in Gelsenkirchen were hardcore hooligans.

"The people we arrested were not hooligans but guys causing trouble and damage because they were unhappy," a spokesman said.

Police brought reinforcements, including English and Portuguese colleagues, to Gelsenkirchen for the match

More than 3,000 known England hooligans were banned from travelling to Germany, but there were fears that supporters would clash with German hooligans and cause a repeat of the scenes at the 1998 tournament when England fans caused chaos in Marseille.

But despite there being up to 80,000 England fans in the cities where their five games were played, the atmosphere was generally peaceful.

German police praised the fans' behaviour at England's first two matches of the World Cup, but several hundred were detained after clashes with German fans in Stuttgart.

A German court on Thursday handed one of the England fans involved in the Stuttgart violence a five-month suspended prison sentence.