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Reuters News ArticleIn response, to postings here regarding English Fans, I post the following: England fans' heads held high Fri 25 June, 2004 04:27 PM By Karen Iley LISBON (Reuters) - Viewed three weeks ago as an invading army of potential trouble-makers, England fans have flown out of Portugal with a new-found reputation as welcome guests. About 60,000 travelled to Portugal to enjoy the games, cheap alcohol and the sun, an explosive mixture at major soccer tournaments in the past. Fans had caused mayhem at the last European Championship in Belgium and the Netherlands. However, legislation to prevent trouble-makers from going abroad and close cooperation between British and Portuguese police prevented trouble during Euro 2004, apart from two nights of drink-fuelled rioting on the Algarve. "The behaviour of the fans has been exemplary," said Kevin Miles, international coordinator for the Football Supporters Federation, the main umbrella group for England fans. "Even taking the brutal nature of defeat in the best sporting manner, England fans left a very positive mark on the tournament." England lost on penalties to hosts Portugal on Thursday in the Euro 2004 quarter-final. While the home fans celebrated, English supporters drowned their sorrows peacefully in Lisbon. "Clearly last night was disappointing on the pitch but heads can be held high off it," Miles said. England had been warned by European soccer's governing body, UEFA, that it could be thrown out of the tournament if there was a repeat of the Euro 2000 trouble. Away from Portugal there were sporadic outbreaks of violence following England's defeat. In Jersey police made 14 arrests after using CS gas to disperse a crowd of 1,500 who threw bottles at police and Portuguese fans. In Thetford, Norfolk, 11 people were arrested after up to 300 England fans surrounded a Portuguese pub. LARGEST GROUP By far the largest group of visiting supporters in Portugal, England fans made a huge amount of noise wherever the team played but treated their visit as a football-related holiday rather than, as so often in the past, a military campaign. "We saw England fans mixing with the other nationalities, making the occasion a festival of football. It was a great party and the England fans were part of that," a Foreign Office spokesman said. New legislation which barred more than 2,800 known or suspected hooligans from travelling to Portugal prevented the kind of organised trouble which had marred previous tournaments, including the 1998 World Cup in France. The Portuguese police, after taking advice from their British counterparts, operated a fair but firm approach - welcoming the fans, letting them enjoy themselves but ready to move in forcefully when needed. "The most important factor is the way that we have been received by the Portuguese people and by the Portuguese police. They didn't treat us as hooligans as soon as we stepped off the plane," said Mark Perryman, a member of England Fans' Group. The trouble in the southern tourist town of Albufeira took place several hundred kilometres from where England were playing. Fifty three Britons were arrested and deported. "That was alcohol-fuelled, anti-social behaviour. These were not organised hooligans," a Home Office (interior ministry) spokesman said. "There is no complacency, the battle against football trouble-makers will continue. "Tough legislative and proactive policing is the key to enabling the great mass of genuine fans to assert their influence and restore the image and reputation of English football and England fans." England fans are not the only ones sorry they are leaving - so are bar and restaurant owners, who have stayed open until the small hours to fuel the team's camp followers. "The Portuguese will be sad to see us go," Miles said. "We spend a fortune. "Maybe the new image as the best-behaved supporters in the world, the most welcome guests, will be one that will stick."