A FOOTBALL supporter from Kent convicted by a Portuguese court of inciting a riot during Euro 2004 was not given a fair trial, a United Kingdom judge has decided.

Garry Mann a firefighter, of Beaumont Davy Close, Faversham, was given a two-year sentence and immediately deported to the UK after the court hearing last summer.

He was one of a number of soccer supporters deported from Portugal after a disturbance in Albufeira in the Algarve.

A UK judge has now ruled he was tried too quickly for justice to have been done.

The ruling from the district judge at Uxbridge Magistrates' Court came as the Metropolitan Police attempted to impose a football banning order on Mr Mann which would have barred him from travelling to matches abroad.

His lawyer, Look Chih Wang, said the banning order should not be imposed because the trial was unfair and the conviction "unsafe".

Mr Mann was convicted of a public order offence after clashes between England supporters and Portuguese police in Albufeira on June 15, 2004.

Mr Mann insisted he was nowhere near the trouble. He claimed he was in a bar with his brother and a friend and was arrested as he made his way home.

He was arrested, sentenced and deported within three days, under temporary fast-track legislation brought in before the football tournament.

When he returned to the UK he was not made to serve his jail term because no such agreement had been made between the UK and Portugal before his conviction.

At the Uxbridge court hearing District Judge Stephen Day ruled there were "significant breaches" of article six and said it would be inappropriate to make a football banning order on the basis of the Portuguese conviction.

The judge's comments do not affect Mr Mann's Portuguese conviction, against which he is expected to appeal later this year.