THREE Englishmen who vandalised an airport taxi within minutes of arriving in Germany for the World Cup are believed to be the first hooligans of any nationality to be arrested.

The men, from the Midlands, were held in the huge German police operation aimed at minimising trouble during the month-long tournament. They were detained overnight in Cologne and appeared in court yesterday morning where they pleaded guilty to being drunk and disorderly.

The three verbally abused a taxi driver and attacked his vehicle when he refused to take them to the city centre because they were so drunk. The court fined the men and banned them from Cologne for the duration of the tournament, but they were allowed to go free and are believed to be still in Germany.

Despite years of planning and promises of close Anglo-German co-operation to deal with hooliganism, the British police team in Germany for the tournament was not informed of the arrests in time to attend the court. A Crown Prosecution Service lawyer was dispatched to Cologne to review the evidence against the men and determine whether it can be classified as football-related. If that is the case, the three will be subjected to football banning orders when they return to England.

News of the first arrests came as a Home Office minister, visiting Frankfurt before England’s first game tomorrow, urged English fans to respect their German hosts. Vernon Coaker said: “Visiting English fans must obey German laws if they want to be welcomed. Fans should act responsibly.

“But I’m an optimist. There’s a real electricity and a surge of excitement. You can’t fail to be moved by the atmosphere. England fans have behaved well in recent years and they have been assured by the German police that they will be treated on the basis of their behaviour, not their reputation.”

Police sources said, however, that they were expecting “a very challenging situation” in Frankfurt tonight. At least 30,000 English fans are expected and there have been rumours that they may be targeted by German hooligan groups.

Some German “ultras” are believed to be plotting an attack in “revenge” for fighting before the Germany-England match in Munich in 2001.

Achim Thiel, the Frankfurt police president, said that his officers — who have been patrolling city centre streets with uniformed British police — were ready for any eventuality. “We are prepared,” Dr Thiel said. “We will intervene early if there is any sign of trouble and we will talk to people and make it very clear there is no room for disorderly behaviour.

“My officers have no orders to interrupt people who are simply having fun, but we have enough officers to deal with any situation.”

In Britain an extensive police operation is under way to locate 180 banned individuals who failed to surrender their passports last week as they are required to do by law.

Their names and details have been circulated to airports and other ports of entry.

Assistant Chief Constable Stephen Thomas, leading the operation in Germany, said that there was no information that any of the 180 were in Germany.

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