A SELF-confessed football hooligan who spent ten days in police cells charged with making Nazi salutes before Leeds United's Champions League match against Munich 1860 said today: "I'm totally innocent."

Father-of-four Rodney Sanderson, 35, claims it was a clear case of wrongful imprisonment and is now consulting a solicitor to fight his case in the European Court of Human Rights.

Unemployed Mr Sanderson, who lives in a flat in Selby town centre, spent £600 on the Munich trip and did not even get to see the game which Leeds won 1-0.

He was one of 13 supporters arrested by German police who swooped on fans in a local bar after they allegedly nade Nazi salutes and shouted "Sieg Heil".

Making the Nazi salute and repeating Nazi slogans have been illegal under German law since the end of the Second World War.

But Mr Sanderson says on this occasion he was an innocent bystander, and was just sitting at a table with other fans singing the Leeds chant Marching On Together with their hands in the air.

He said: "It was the day before the match and I was ill with diarrhoea. I didn't even have a drink, and both my wife and mother who saw me on television can confirm that.

"After being taken back to the hotel for our passports we were put in police cells for three days waiting for the court hearing.

"The judge then remanded us in custody for seven days but we were never tried. Police just came to the cells one morning and said we could go if we signed a form."

Mr Sanderson said he then discovered he had been fined 900 Deutschmarks, about £300.

"I've no intention of paying it, even though if I return to Germany I'll be immediately arrested and imprisoned for 45 days," he said.

"I saved up for a long time and borrowed money from friends for this trip, and I didn't even see the game.

"This was not justice - we were not allowed to speak to the British Embassy and we were in the cells for almost a week before we even saw a solicitor."

Mr Sanderson was jailed for two months last November after admitting a breach of the peace in Glasgow before the Scotland-England Euro 2000 play-off.

He said: "I'll hold my hands up and admit I'm a soccer thug, but this time I'm innocent. I went to Munich to enjoy myself and see the sights."

PICTURE: FINED: Rodney Sanderson, who was arrested in Munich before a Leeds United football match there, when a group of Leeds fans is alleged to have made Nazi gestures

Picture: David Harrison