Police have arrested a British journalist for harbouring a fan who intruded into the England World Cup team's locker room and believe the episode was planned, South Africa's top officer said on Tuesday.

"Last night Simon Wright, a British journalist who works for the Sunday Mirror in the UK, was arrested for defeating the ends of justice and flouting the provisions of the immigration act," Police Commissioner Bheki Cele said.

"The police have reason to believe that this incident was orchestrated and involved the cooperation of a number of individuals," Cele told reporters.

"The police strongly believe that the motive was to put the World Cup security in a bad light and possibly to profit from this act."

An England fan, Pavlos Joseph, has already been arrested over the episode in the aftermath of England's 0-0 draw with Algeria in Cape Town on June 18.

Joseph gave an interview to the Sunday Mirror after the incident, claiming he had wandered into the dressing room by mistake while looking for a toilet.

The South African authorities came under fire afterwards for not immediately detaining the fan who was finally arrested two days later.

Cele said Joseph had been put up in a hotel under a false name by the tabloid.

"Mr Wright has admitted to harbouring and interviewing Joseph when the police were searching for the latter in order to affect an arrest," he said in the capital Pretoria.

"The second criminal charge against Wright relates to his alleged conduct in booking luxury hotel accommodation for Joseph using false or incorrect particulars.

"Despite the arrest of Joseph and Wright, further investigations are continuing."

British newspaper group Trinity Mirror on Tuesday defended one of their journalists arrested in South Africa, saying he did nothing wrong.

"It was an absolutely legitimate story that he was involved in," Trinity Mirror spokesman Nick Fullagar told AFP, saying the journalist "conducted himself perfectly properly as he would have here in the UK".

"We have spoken to him and he's got a lawyer," he said, adding that he would appear in court on Wednesday morning.

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