The FA today praised and publicly thanked Sunderland AFC for its professionalism

The FA today praised and publicly thanked Sunderland AFC for its professionalism and support in staging last night's thrilling European Championship Qualifier.

Paul Barber, The FA's Director of Marketing and Communications, told TheFA.com: "We are extremely grateful to everyone at Sunderland AFC for all the hard work that went into staging last night's match between England and Turkey.

"It was a highly charged match and a capacity crowd of more than 48,000 made for a fantastic atmosphere - the vast majority of fans from both England and Turkey behaved exceptionally well and enjoyed an excellent game of football. The FA and the England team would like to thank the England fans for their incredibly vocal support throughout the match. We are concerned about instances of racist chanting which have been reported to the police and we strongly condemn such behaviour by any fans."

Commenting on the 12 arrests inside the stadium, Paul Barber said: "We are obviously very disappointed indeed that a small number of people allowed their celebrations to spill over on to the pitch. Their behaviour was unwise, unnecessary and totally unacceptable.

"Player and spectator safety is paramount at all times and we fully support the Police in the actions they took to ensure that people stayed in their seats. We cannot tolerate fans invading the pitch and we expect those arrested to be dealt with by the courts."