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Germany Police Battle Soccer Hooligans

It did not take too long for peace to be disturbed, with German hooligans battling with police on Wednesday just before their team`s game against Poland. The German police was working together with Poland officials to identify and arrest known troublemakers, but eventually it was homegrown hooligans who lashed out about two hours prior to the game.

German authorities prepared for such incidents with foreign backup brought from outside the country. German legislators issued special laws that deal with such behavior and Germany was ready to welcome World Cup. Preparations proved to be useful and police said that 300 German and Polish hooligans were arrested.

Much of the focus was on the English, Dutch and Polish fans, but in fact the problem is that German hooligans are already inside Germany in the first place, and don`t have to travel in order to interfere with the World Cup. What gives me headaches sometimes is thinking about how we are going to keep our own 10,000 hooligans in line," Michael Endler, who heads Germany`s office for sports information, warned before the competition.