FIFA ejected 36 female Netherlands fans from their World Cup match with Denmark for wearing an orange mini-dress designed by a beer company.

The dresses were made by Bavaria beer and despite the outfits containing no branding, the organisers said it was against their rules on "ambush marketing".

"It's a nice dress. Very fashionable. In my opinion, people should have the right to wear whatever they want," Peer Swinkels, from Bavaria beer, told South African newspaper The Star.

"We launched the orange item on April 30 on the Queen's birthday, which we call Queen's Day. The Dutch people are a little crazy about orange and we wear it on public holidays and events like the World Cup."

Barbara Kastein, who was wearing the dress, explained what happened: "We were sitting near the front, making a lot of noise, and the cameras kept focusing on us. We were singing songs and having a good time.

"In the second half, about 40 stewards surrounded us and forced us to leave the stadium. They pushed us up the stairs, and one of the girls fell.

"The police came and kept on asking us the same questions over and over, asking if we worked for Bavaria. They said we were ambush-marketing and it was against the law in South Africa. They said we would be arrested and would stay in jail for six months. Girls were crying. It was bad."

FIFA also removed flags emblazoned with company logos during Sunday's Group D match between Ghana and Serbia at the Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria.

"In fact there were mass ambush activities by one company from Ghana during the match and as per the regulations the FIFA Rights Protection team had to collect a few flags carrying heavy commercial branding," FIFA spokesman Nicolas Maingot said.

"Most other flags where the branding was only very small were not taken away."

In April, Kulula, a local low-cost airline known for humorous advertisements, agreed to withdraw its tongue-in-cheek billboards after a legal letter from FIFA which was given wide media coverage.

The advertisement called Kulula the unofficial carrier of the "You-know-what" and showed footballs, vuvuzela trumpets and football players.

FIFA makes most of its money, which has to last until the next World Cup in four years time, from television rights and deals with commercial sponsors.

More than 60 per cent of FIFA's 2007-2010 revenue of £2.17 billion comes from TV rights and about 30 per cent from commercial marketing.