German police detained 122 England supporters in Stuttgart overnight for mostly drunken and aggressive behaviour as fans gathered for tomorrow's second-round World Cup match with Ecuador.
"By midnight there were 200 (fans) singing insulting and racist songs," Stephen Thomas, the head of a British police team working in Germany, told a news conference.
"An hour later there was a hard core of 100, who were by now very drunk and refused to move. Some bottles and chairs were thrown and eventually the situation came to a stand-off. The decision was taken, in conjunction with myself, that arrests should be made under preventative powers. It was absolutely the right decision."
Under German law police can detain individuals for threatening behaviour or if they suspect they are likely to commit a crime and it does not constitute a full arrest.
Mr Thomas, who described the incident as "minor", said he expected those held to be kept in custody until after the match had been played. Of the 122 only three were for more serious offences including throwing chairs and the possession of drugs.
A spokesman for Stuttgart police, Stefan Keilback, was keen to stress that the majority of those held were very drunk. "There were no hooligans, just drunk people," he said.
"The fans were given warnings, they had been given the yellow card twice and then it was the red card."
The English have a long history of soccer-related violence but there has been little trouble in Germany so far, with only a small number of arrests for mostly drunken behaviour or people trying to get into a stadium without a ticket.
Some 60,000 England fans are expected to descend on Stuttgart for Sunday's match.