GERMANY: SOCCER / FOOTBALL - Barsinghausen will be home to the Polish football team during the World Cup in June, and the Gilde Sport Hotel Fuchsbachtal is getting ready

Record ID: 858864

  • Title: GERMANY: SOCCER / FOOTBALL - Barsinghausen will be home to the Polish football team during the World Cup in June, and the Gilde Sport Hotel Fuchsbachtal is getting ready
  • Date: 28th April 2006
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE)(German) HOTEL MANAGER JUERGEN PELDA TALKING ABOUT THE RISK OF POLISH HOOLIGANS AT THE HOTEL, SAYING: "I don't think so, although you can never say never, you do have to be careful. It is a bit different for us though, no-one can get into this building if they don't have the authorisation to, that is the first big advantage. The valley and the roads leading to it will be closed off as far as possible by FIFA officials."
  • Embargoed: 13th May 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Germany
  • City:
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVAECED5ACL7TF9Q4PBJBTBR3UVH
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: Barsinghausen will be home to the Polish football team during the World Cup in June, and the Gilde Sport Hotel Fuchsbachtal is getting ready for the necessary adjustments such guests require.
    "You know how it is with professional footballers, there are desires and demands," the Hotel Manager, Juergen Pelda told Reuters TV on Thursday (April 6th). "At the moment we are talking and negotiating about these desires. For example they want us to prepare a games room, with games from ranging from pool and billiards to modern computer games, and a massage room."
    But their leisure facilities are not the only things the hotel has to work on, security is also an issue. The extent of hooliganism amongst Polish fans at the moment can be compared to that in England in 1986. And the hooligans are reportedly turning their attention from fighting amongst themselves to testing their strength at the World Cup in Germany, just over an hours drive over the border.
    In December there was a large organised fight between German and Polish fans with baseball bats in woodland just outside Frankfurt last December.
    The worst hooliganism in Poland is to be found in Krakow, where Cracovia, one of the oldest clubs in Poland, has their stadium only 500 yards from their rivals Wisla. Krakow is a six hour drive from the German border.
    These hooligans could present particular problems to the German police, in the last 12 months eight fans of the clubs have been stabbed to death near the stadiums.
    Hotel Manager Pelda hopes they won't have any trouble with hooligans, FIFA is imposing strict security measures on the hotels and training grounds and will be looking themselves to make sure they are imposed.
    "I don't think we'll have trouble, although you can never say never, you do have to be careful. It is a bit different for us though, no-one can get into this building if they don't have the authorisation to, that is the first big advantage. The valley and the roads leading to it will be closed off as far as possible by FIFA officials."
    There will be 30,000 police at the World Cup, but Poland presents some very particular problems for the authorities. There is little exisiting polish legislation to deal with the issue of hooliganism, and since Poland became a member of the european Union, border controls have also been relaxed.
    The German government has announced it will be reintroducing border controls, so that people have to show a passport to cross the border, but as yet there is no reliable database of hooligans in Poland, so border police will not know who to stop.
    The Polish team base at Barsinghausen is roughly four hours drive from the Polish border. **~
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