TWO Burnley soccer fans Mark Holden, 29, and Philip Smith, 21, were today beginning a two-month sentence in a French jail after being convicted of attacking French supporters and stealing tickets for England's World Cup game against Argentina.

They appeared in court at St Etienne yesterday.

The court was told how the two men attacked French supporters and stole a number of tickets for the game.

Both were ordered to pay their victims a total of 2,000 francs (about £200) and were banned from France for two years.

Mr Holden who lives in Herbert Street, Burnley, has previously been excluded from football grounds in this country for a football related offence, police confirmed.

A woman who answered the telephone at the address in Herbert Street identified herself as Mr Holden's girlfriend. She would not give her name and said she did not want to comment as she knew nothing about what had happened apart from what she had seen on Teletext.

She had not heard from Mark and had received no official information whatsoever.

She said: "The only thing I want to say is that Mark had no need to steal and would not steal anything anyway.

"He already had tickets for matches up to and including the quarter final so why would he steal any? I can only think it must have been someone else. I don't know Mr Smith and I am not saying anything else.''

Two other England fans also appeared in court. One was jailed for three months for butting a French policeman and Mustafa Camal, 33, from Preston, received a 15-day sentence for throwing an empty beer can at locals and throwing plastic chairs at police.

Police football liaison officer at Burnley, Inspector Dave Holden, said: "We shall be making further inquiries and also approaching Burnley Football Club. It would appear these two men would fall within the criteria for being banned for life.''

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.