German game shows ugly side ahead of World Cup draw
Violence, poor organisation and desperately poor soccer combined to show the ugly side of the German game this weekend just as the country prepares to welcome the world.
Some 1,650 journalists, 500 FIFA officials and coaches from the 32 qualifying teams are heading to Leipzig for the draw for the 2006 World Cup finals on Friday, December 9. An estimated 320 million people will watch the draw by television.
Germany will hope few of the visitors arrived early enough to catch Saturday's Bundesliga programme.
Problems started on Friday when Kaiserslautern's match at home to Eintracht Frankfurt had to be called off after a crack appeared in a stand at the Fritz-Walter-Stadion.
It was the latest in a series of problems to hit Germany's World Cup stadiums amid a 1.5 billion euros programme to build and renovate 12 venue for the finals.
Hamburg SV's 3-1 win over Cologne was then spoiled when midfielder Alexander Laas was hit in the face by a drumstick thrown from the Cologne section of the crowd.
Television pictures showed Laas covered in blood being carried away from the touchline by his team captain Daniel van Buyten before receiving treatment.
"Bloody football," ran the front page headline in the top selling Bild am Sonntag newspaper. "A bleak day for the game," the newspaper added.
Nuremberg's Stefan Kiessling was also hit by an object thrown from the crowd in the game against Borussia Moenchengladbach, although he was unhurt.
"We shouldn't panic," World Cup organising committee vice-president Wolfgang Niersbach said on DSF television on Sunday. "The World Cup is not under threat.
"The old stadiums with running tracks were obviously safer in this regard but video monitoring means people cannot get away with this."
Bild also reported that a man was fatally stabbed on Friday evening after an argument about soccer.
The incident came a few days after 100 German and Polish hooligans started a mass brawl on the German side of the border.
Hooliganism is one of the worst fears for World Cup organisers as they work with police on the security arrangements for the finals, which begin on June 9 in Munich and finish on July 9 in Berlin.
Saturday's feature match between VfB Stuttgart and champions Bayern Munich was spoiled by Germany international Sebastian Deisler's red card in the 42nd minute for an angry retaliation against Ludovc Magnin.
The match was a dire spectacle. As such it was pretty representative of the afternoon as a whole, with just 10 goals scored in the six matches that did go ahead.
Some 1,650 journalists, 500 FIFA officials and coaches from the 32 qualifying teams are heading to Leipzig for the draw for the 2006 World Cup finals on Friday, December 9. An estimated 320 million people will watch the draw by television.
Germany will hope few of the visitors arrived early enough to catch Saturday's Bundesliga programme.
Problems started on Friday when Kaiserslautern's match at home to Eintracht Frankfurt had to be called off after a crack appeared in a stand at the Fritz-Walter-Stadion.
It was the latest in a series of problems to hit Germany's World Cup stadiums amid a 1.5 billion euros programme to build and renovate 12 venue for the finals.
Hamburg SV's 3-1 win over Cologne was then spoiled when midfielder Alexander Laas was hit in the face by a drumstick thrown from the Cologne section of the crowd.
Television pictures showed Laas covered in blood being carried away from the touchline by his team captain Daniel van Buyten before receiving treatment.
"Bloody football," ran the front page headline in the top selling Bild am Sonntag newspaper. "A bleak day for the game," the newspaper added.
Nuremberg's Stefan Kiessling was also hit by an object thrown from the crowd in the game against Borussia Moenchengladbach, although he was unhurt.
"We shouldn't panic," World Cup organising committee vice-president Wolfgang Niersbach said on DSF television on Sunday. "The World Cup is not under threat.
"The old stadiums with running tracks were obviously safer in this regard but video monitoring means people cannot get away with this."
Bild also reported that a man was fatally stabbed on Friday evening after an argument about soccer.
The incident came a few days after 100 German and Polish hooligans started a mass brawl on the German side of the border.
Hooliganism is one of the worst fears for World Cup organisers as they work with police on the security arrangements for the finals, which begin on June 9 in Munich and finish on July 9 in Berlin.
Saturday's feature match between VfB Stuttgart and champions Bayern Munich was spoiled by Germany international Sebastian Deisler's red card in the 42nd minute for an angry retaliation against Ludovc Magnin.
The match was a dire spectacle. As such it was pretty representative of the afternoon as a whole, with just 10 goals scored in the six matches that did go ahead.
posted by AKEmarmota at
2:45 PM
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