THIRTY British football fans who defied warnings not to travel to Istanbul for England's crucial Euro 2004 match faced deportation from Turkey last night.

The UK nationals were detained at Istanbul Ataturk Airport earlier yesterday and would probably be put on flights back to the UK this morning, a Foreign Office (FO) spokeswoman said.

During the run-up to today's game, the FO issued strongly-worded advice for supporters to stay away - and even the national coach, Sven-Goran Eriksson, said they could be putting their lives in jeopardy if they ventured into the country.

A Football Association spokesman said England fans defying the travel ban had been warned they would be turned away by Turkish authorities.

He said: "Our message has been clear all along. We have told people not to travel and it was clear that there were measures in place to deal with fans who did."

He refused to comment on whether the FA would take action against any of the supporters who had travelled to Turkey.

Speaking about the detained Britons, Kevin Miles, of the Football Supporters' Association, said: "They've been given the choice of either going back to London or Manchester. It's a sad state of affairs when the desire only to go to a football match is sufficient to have you deported from a country."

Mr Miles is not going to the game.

The FO spokeswoman reiterated previous advice that supporters should not think of going to Istanbul.

She said: "It was made very clear by the Turkish authorities and by the Foreign Office that fans should not travel to the game.

"The Turkish authorities have put in place a number of measures to prevent English fans attending the match.

"British nationals travelling to the match will be refused permission to enter the country."