A German soccer hooligan told a magazine that fans nearly beat a gendarme to death on June 21 in France because they were disappointed they could not buy tickets for a World Cup match. The man, identified as `Spike', told Der Spiegel in an interview that he had seen how German fans beat policeman Daniel Nivel in the northern French town of Lens.

The attack took place outside a World Cup stadium where a match between Germany and Yugoslavia was taking place. Nivel was beaten so badly that he suffered irreversible brain damage and remains in a coma. French police have detained two Germans on charges of attempted manslaughter.

Spike recalled seeing policeman Nivel, because he was lying on the ground and not wearing a helmet. "All the fury of the mob was let out on him. They kicked him in the face. They even beat his head with a stone. Some of them went completely crazy," Spike said.

Spike insisted the French policeman had been partly to blame. "Of course I regret whathappened. None of us went to Lens to kill. But I am quite sure, and here I am speaking for the whole hooligan scene in Germany, I have no problem with the fact that this policeman was taught a lesson. "Why did he block our way? Why did he not run away? He was serving the system and he must accept the consequences."

700 arrested so far: French police have so far arrested 700 people in connection with incidents during the World Cup. 80 persons had been sent for trial, of whom 42 had been given jail sentences. Eleven had been expelled from France, while further 500 had been barred from entering the country.