Fan(atic)s

To the half-dozen people who landed here today after googling for some permutation of "football violence Stuttgart:" yes, there was trouble in the city this weekend. Some five hundred people were arrested, roughly 95% of them English.

[Updated on 28.6. On consideration, this is not as bad as it may sound: it wasn't a riot, there was no property damage and no serious personal injuries. There were some 60 thousand English fans in Stuttgart on Sunday, five hundred arrests is not even one percent of them. Given that drunken violent assholes make up more than one percent of every population (even Tibetan Buddhist vegetarians) this must be counted a good result.]

The trouble began on Friday evening, i.e. a day and half before the English team's next game:

German police detained 122 English fans [Friday] night, mostly for drunken and aggressive behaviour, after trouble flared in Stuttgart. The supporters, in the city for England's second-round match against Ecuador tomorrow, had been throwing bottles and glasses at passers-by from a pub terrace. [...]

"By midnight there were 200 [fans] singing insulting and racist songs," said Stephen Thomas, the head of a British police team working in Germany... 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. "English fans were shown by this action that aggressive drinking, violence and bullying will be prevented," said the Stuttgart police chief Michael Kuehner.

Of the 122 only three were for more serious offences, including throwing chairs and the possession of drugs. Stefan Keilback, a spokesman for the Stuttgart police, 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." Some 60,000 England fans are expected to descend on Stuttgart for Sunday's match.
Guardian Unlimited, Saturday

They were at it again after the Germany-Sweden match yesterday afternoon:

[Saturday's] violence began shortly after 40,000 people had watched Germany beat Sweden 2-0. As the predominantly German crowd left the Fan Fest, where giant screens had been erected to let them see the match in Munich, there was an exchange of bottles and chairs with around 1,000 English fans, who had spent the day nearby.
Guardian Unlimited, today

This is how the local newspaper summed it up (my translation):

It started with a river of alcohol, then the relaxed mood turned sour: hundreds of English fans, already in the city two days before the match against Ecuador [today], confirmed every prejudice against them. Drunken, braying and sweating, they consumed absurd quantities of beer and spirits on the steps of the Königsbau opposite the public viewing areas [i.e. where the outdoor big-screens were set up], bellowing out battle songs to work up their courage. In the evening, they abused and insulted passersby and threw chairs, tables and bottles in every direction. The police have reported nine injuries since Friday.
Stuttgarter Nachrichten