World Cup: 500 fans arrested during World Cup

Fears that the fan violence that gripped Stuttgart the previous day would be repeated on Sunday were erased by England's 1-0 win against Ecuador and the driving rain.

Photo: World Cup: 500 fans arrested during World Cup

Police spokesman Olaf Petersen said nine fans were arrested for minor offenses on Sunday. That paled compared with Saturday when police arrested 400 English, as well as 14 Germans, following a clash between fans from the two countries.

All but three were released Sunday morning, in part because of a lack of detention space, police spokesman Stephan Keilbach said.

The fans were banned from the downtown area until Monday morning, though Keilbach said police would only know of violations if the fans caused more problems. All those arrested and released had been photographed, but Keilbach said it was impractical to hand out so many pictures to all the officers on patrol.

The arrests followed a clash with police earlier Saturday during which 122 English were arrested. Of those, 117 were kept in custody until after the match. They were released on Monday.